Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti calls Hindutva ‘illness’; BJP objects

Iltija Mufti, a Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party leader and daughter of former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, said on Sunday that Hindutva is an illness.

She also linked the Jai Shri Ram slogan with lynching. The Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the politicians for her remark.

Mufti said that Hindutva and Hinduism are different, as the former wants to spread the hegemony of Hindus.

“There is a lot of difference between Hindutva and Hinduism. Hindutva is a philosophy of hate that Veer Savarkar spread in India in the 1940s to establish the hegemony of Hindus and the philosophy was that India belongs to Hindus and is for Hindus. Like Islam, Hinduism is also a religion that promotes secularism, love and compassion. So, let’s not deliberately distort it. The slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is not about ‘Ramrajya’ but it is being linked to lynching… It is very shameful that Hinduism is being distorted… I criticized Hindutva as an illness,” Iltija Mufti was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

BJP leader Ravindra Raina said the language used by Iltija Mufti was “very derogatory”. He demanded an apology from the PDP leader.

“PDP leader has used a very derogatory language. This kind of language should not be used. There might be differences of opinion in politics but derogatory language should not be used…PDP leader Iltija Mufti should apologise for her remarks,” he said.

Iltija Mufti shot into the limelight in 2019, when her mother was incarcerated before the revocation of Article 370. She used to manage her social media profiles.

She contested the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election from the Bijbehara seatthis year. She lost to her National Conference rival, Bashir Ahmad Shah Veeri.