Mehbooba denial: ‘Would die before praising Modi govt’

“I’m not surprised Mehbooba praised Modi. She can praise whoever she likes,” Omar tweeted on the micro-blogging site. “I am surprised she’d deny it knowing others heard her speech.”

Speaking at Modi’s fast venue on Monday,Swaraj had said: “Mehbooba Mufti ji said her Muslim friend wanted to set up an industry and sought time from the Gujarat CM. She said he got immediate appointment and when he went to meet him (Modi) he was surprised to see all related officials in the CM’s cabin. The friend is now setting up his unit in Gujarat.”

The PDP chief,however,refuted Swaraj’s statement. “I heard Swaraj today. I would die before saying that. I would die before praising Gujarat. I have been misquoted,” she told The Indian Express.

Omar is not amused at Mufti’s denial. “Why can’t she just admit what she said rather than deny the whole thing,” Omar asked in a tweet. “(It is) So much more graceful to accept rather than call Ms Swaraj a liar”.

Mufti questioned Omar’s silence for the past two weeks. “He was also present there. Why did he not utter a word for 15 days,” she said. “His father has been praising Modi. They (BJP and NC) have an old friendship.”

Mufti said she has spoken to the Home Ministry and sought the text of her speech.

Meanwhile,Swaraj on Tuesday stood by her speech. “I correctly quoted Mufti in Ahmedabad yesterday,” she tweeted. “I quoted what she spoke in the presence of over a hundred people at the NIC meet on September 10.”

Race for supremacy in BJP,says Cong

The Congress on Tuesday suggested ‘fissures’ in the NDA as also within the BJP over CM Narendra Modi’s fast. Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the BJP is witnessing a “race for supremacy”. “Where is the NDA if the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena are not with the fast?” said Dwivedi. “Ask those in that party who have welcomed Modi’s fast how they are feeling inside. Nowadays,everyone in the BJP is trying to establish one’s supremacy,RSS is doing it as an organisation while others are doing it in their personal capacity,be it Advani’s rath yatra or the BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s antics.”