Speak up in Parliament for ‘marginalised' Muslims, Mehbooba urges Rahul
SRINAGAR: Former J&K chief minister and People's Democratic Party (PDP) president
Mehbooba Mufti
wrote Monday to
Rahul Gandhi
, urging Congress's LS leader of Opposition to take a firm stand during Parliament's current monsoon session against 'growing marginalisation of Muslims in India'.
In her letter, Mehbooba acknowledged that while key issues like the horrific Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor and other critical security matters were expected to dominate House discussions, she 'sincerely hopes the opposition, especially INDIA bloc, raises the growing concern of Muslim victimisation across the country'.
'Under the pretext of targeting 'Bangladeshis' and 'Rohingyas', Muslims are being pushed into increasingly desperate situations.
Disturbing media reports have even suggested that some were forced into the sea in attempts to expel them from India. As you rightly highlighted during your (recent) visit to Assam, the large-scale demolition of thousands of Muslim homes is deeply troubling,' Mehbooba's letter stated.
The PDP president also referred to the raging controversy over special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
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He described the exercise as 'yet another systematic effort to dispossess, disempower, and ultimately disenfranchise Muslims, effectively erasing their presence, both symbolically and literally'.
Mehbooba underscored Rahul's legacy to urge him to voice the concerns. 'Muslims who chose to remain in India during Partition did so because of the faith they had in the secular leadership of the Congress from Mahatma Gandhi to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Today, as the bearer of that legacy, the responsibility falls on your shoulders to uphold and defend the secular and democratic values enshrined in our Constitution,' the letter stated.
Mehbooba pointed out that when Hindus, minorities in neighbouring countries like Pakistan or Bangladesh, were targeted, 'our nation rightly expresses outrage and the Union government intervenes'. 'But when Muslims are targeted within our own country there is an unsettling silence, a fear that prevents many from speaking up,' she wrote.
As a politician from one of the 'only Muslim-majority regions that chose to join the Indian Union largely due to the vision and secular character of your great-grandfather (Nehru), I feel extremely helpless at times', the PDP chief wrote, urging Rahul to continue speaking up for a minority 'steadily marginalised and pushed to the fringes of Indian society'.
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