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New Delhi: In what
could be a major embarrassment for Jammu and Kashmir Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, an official
transcript shows that she did praise Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi at the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting
last September.
According to the transcript of the NIC meeting released by the
home ministry on its website, Mehbooba had referred to her meeting
with a Muslim businessman from Chennai, who narrated to her his
experience during a meeting with Modi seeking solution to his
problems to do business in Gujarat.
She had, according to the transcript, said that Modi had within 10
minutes solved the problems that the Muslim businessman faced.
After citing the experience of the businessman, Mehbooba asked all
political parties to reach out to the Muslim minorities so that
the community could respond positively.
"I recall once I was in Chennai and I met someone, a Muslim
businessman, and he told me that he had gone to see Gujarat chief
minister, and he said I was very impressed. I had an appointment
with him regarding some business deal and he had got all the
officers there, around him. They did not take even 10 minutes and
he got his job done," Mehbooba said at the NIC meeting.
"So, I mean, people, minorities, Muslims they are looking forward
(to) some kind, some kind of step forward, some kind of reaching
out, which I think, we are missing. I mean to say that if all
political parties reach out to minorities they will respond
positively," she added.
After the NIC meeting Sep 10, 2011, Leader of the Opposition in
the Lok Sabha and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj
mentioned Mehbooba's praise for Modi during her speech on the last
day of the three-day 'Sadhbhavana' fast that her party colleague
Modi undertook in Ahmedabad Sep 17-19.
Fearing it could lead to a political backlash for her in Jammu and
Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti countered Sushma Swaraj's statement,
claiming it was baseless and untrue and that she had never praised
Modi at the NIC meeting.
The transcript on the home ministry website now seems to have
proved Sushma Swaraj right and Mehbooba Mufti wrong.
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