Mehbooba''s repsonse to ''go to Pakistan'' tirade

New Delhi, November 27 

PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti criticised those saying “go to Pakistan” on Friday.

"To those who ask (Muslims) to go to Pakistan, I want to say that the nation owns us and we own the nation," she said in the Lok Sabha while participating in the debate on the Constitution. PDP is an ally of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, she said writers returning their awards showed India was tolerant and willing of hear opinions.

"Indian Muslims follow the real Islam. This is also because the Hindu majority (community) is very tolerant. Babasaheb must have taken tolerance from Hinduism. The way Hinduism has the tolerance, perhaps no one has it. The historians, authors and scienitists have been protesting and returning their awards. The way they came out in protest keeps the nation alive.

She said Muslims in India were better placed than those in Pakistan or Syria, where “even if Muslim is killed one cannot open his mouth".

Her comments gain significance after comments on the growing “intolerance” in the country by actors Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan drew angry responses.

Mufti said compared the Dadri incident, in which a 50-year-old man was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri after rumours that he ate beef spread across the village, to communal violence like the ones in Meerut, Bhagalpur and Gujarat riots and said people kept “the spirit” alive despite them. — PTI