TIA Correspondent /
Equating the activities of Hindu fringe elements with dread ISIS, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti today demanded that fringe elements acting in the name of Hinduism should be checked. Speaking at a newspaper function in New Delhi, she said these elements compare their acts with nationalism but they are like ISIS elements who are misusing the name of religion.
The PDP leader asserted that tolerance is the strength of India.
“Tolerance is the strength of our country and if we don’t stop these so-called fringe elements…What is happening in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq… because those are also fringe elements who are misusing the name of Islam’, she said while speaking at the HT Leadership summit in New Delhi..
“So in our country there are fringe elements that are misusing the name of Hinduism and they also compare it with nationalism which is worse,” she added
Mehbooba, whose party PDP heads a coalition government with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, said Bihar elections had done a “great job” to the “fringe elements” who misused the name Hinduism comparing it with “nationalism”.
When she was asked a question how does her party justify when noises including by some Union Ministers of “go to Pakistan”, She said “the mentality is the same, it is the thought process that counts.”
She referred to late Pakistani Prime Minister Z A Bhutto’s quote who had said that India is thriving because of the chaos and noise of democracy.
“When people are trying to fight a battle with rising prices, don’t get onions, and suddenly some people start dictating as to which meat should one consume? This is not done. This is not acceptable,” she said.
To a question whether it was affecting the PDP-BJP alliance in the state that saw death of a young trucker being killed by such fringe elements, she said “the murderers have been booked and tough action has been taken. This is what counts. Statements can be there but at the end it’s the action that counts.”