Srinagar, July 28, KDC: Reacting to former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s recent remarks on the use of force in Kashmir, senior politician Bilal Lone said the controversy surrounding her statement was an unnecessary distraction orchestrated by those in power to divert attention from issues of accountability, governance failures, and growing public anxiety.
“It was merely a slip of the tongue—an innocent human error that anyone can make. It certainly does not warrant making a mountain out of a molehill,” Bilal Lone said, as per news agency Kashmir Dot Com.
Bilal Lone said it had become a disturbing trend in Kashmir’s political landscape to belittle and attack one another at a time when the region is passing through a critical phase of its history.
“It is deeply unfortunate that our political discourse has descended into mudslinging, rabble-rousing, and cheap rhetoric. This is certainly not the way to find meaningful solutions to the pressing challenges before us,” he said.
Bilal Lone remarked that everyone has a past and has made mistakes, whether big or small, but that should not become a reason to constantly vilify one another.
“We cannot keep dwelling on each other’s past without first reflecting on our own. We are all sailing in the same boat,” he said.
Bilal Lone said that at a time when the elected government and the BJP’s allies in Kashmir should have been strongly urging the Union government to review the reported arrests and detention of hundreds of youth following the Anantnag terror attack, they had instead chosen to make a non-issue the centrepiece of their politics.
He added that it was encouraging that Ms. Mufti had acknowledged her mistake and said the matter should now be laid to rest. (KDC)
