 Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 22: Former Chief Minister and the President of Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti after losing power has suddenly developed soft corner for the members of Gujjar and Bakarwal community residing in Jammu region.
When Mehbooba was ruling Jammu and Kashmir she "punished" Early Times for raising the issues which touched the skin of a common man in Jammu region. She directed the state run Information department to curtail advertisements to Early Times for raising the issues which highlighted the discrimination faced by the Jammu region.
Mehbooba called the Early Times Editor Munish Gupta for a meeting and asked him not to write about the issues which are related to Jammu and bring to fore the sufferings of the Jammu people. In order to make the Early Times toe the official line the state run Information department even increased the volume of government advertisements to 7825 cms, 6475 cms and 7205 cms in March, April and May 2017, but the volume was reduced soon after the assembly session ended and after Early Times did not budge from its stand and continued to highlight the discrimination being faced by the Jammu region.
The advertisement flow was curtailed in the subsequent months to "teach" Early Times a lesson for not following the official diktats. From June 2017 onwards the volume of the government advertisements kept on decli Had ET Editor been 'Munish Gujjar' instead of Munish Gupta, former CM would have shown no mercy, she wanted to carry forward her anti-Jammu agenda
Mehbooba Mufti tried her best to suppress the issues and the aspirations of Jammu people when she was holding the chief minister's office. Out of power she is trying to project herself as the "Messiah" of Jammu people. She is trying to tell the members of tribal communities that she is with them and rest others have conspired against them and want to snatch their land.
Even if the Editor of Early Times that point of time would have been "Munish Gujjar", instead of Munish Gupta, Mehbooba Mufti would have resorted to the same treatment and choked the advertisement flow as she wanted to carry forward her anti-Jammu agenda.
Someone needs to tell Mehbooba Mufti that memory of people is not that short lived and they cannot be taken for a ride by selling rhetoric to them. People of Jammu remember it very well how Mehbooba treated them when she was the "Queen." Now she is playing politics over the issues which can make her relevant but the fact is that she has lost her relevance and people have no faith over her politics and the issues being raised by her. | 