Mehbooba denies Narendra Modi praise, calls Sushma Swaraj a 'liar'

Mehbooba Mufti

 Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday denied the claim that she had praised or supported Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi at a recent National Integration Council meeting.

In her speech after Narendra Modi broke his 3-day 'Sadbhavana fast' at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Sushma Swaraj had said that Mehbooba Mufti, at a recent meeting of National integration council in New Delhi had praised Modi.

Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha had further claimed that a friend of Mehbooba Mufti had sought a favour from the Gujarat chief minister which was granted immediately.

The BJP leader said: "A Muslim friend of hers wanted to invest in Gujarat and was astonished to be quickly granted an appointment, and that when he did meet Modi, had a decision in half an hour."

Mehbooba on Tuesday hit back and described Sushma's claim as baseless and untrue. "I have never praised Modi nor recommended any businessman to him for favour. It is all rubbish," she said.
Mehbooba Mufti has demanded that her NIC speech be made public. Union home secretary RK Singh said: "We will examine that demand....the proceedings of the NIC are distributed to the members every time and we will do it this time also."

Sushma Swaraj, in her response to Mehbooba's denial, wrote on her twitter page: "I correctly quoted Ms Mehbooba Mufti in Ahmedabad yesterday. It was not a private conversation. I only quoted what she spoke in the presence of over a hundred people in the afternoon session of the NIC meeting on 10th September."

Mehbooba's denial immediately evoked a strong reaction from Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. He slammed her in a tweet saying that he was not surprised that Mehbooba had praised Modi. "She can praise who ever she likes. But I am surprised she'd deny it knowing others heard her speech," the chief minister posted on his twitter page.

"Why can't she just admit what she said rather than deny the whole thing. So much more graceful to accept rather than call Ms. Swaraj a liar," he added.