Though Gujars and bakerwals of Jammu region were always under threat from the BJP backed hindu communalists during the 23 months of PDP-BJP coalition rule but Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister never dared to contests even the threats of her own cabinet colleagues of BJP to Gujjars and Bakerwals in Jammu region. Mehooba Mufti now crying over recent discriminatory demolition drive of the Jammu Development Authority against Gujar and Bakerwal populations in Jammu region ahead of the ensuing Lok Sabha and assembly elections did not dare to seek an explanation from her own cabinet colleague Chowdhry Lal Singh in May 2016 for threatening the Gujjars with a repeat of the 1947 massacre of Muslims when he had told a visiting Gujjar delegation, if they had “forgotten 1947”. As Chief Minister Mehbooba did not bother to intervene even after several mob attacks on Gujjars and Bakerwals in several towns of the Jammu region and consequently they were scared to move even with their animals in August 2017 . Mehbooba as Chief Minister did not woke up from deep slumber even after a seventy year-old Bakerwal was attacked by a mob near a Reasi town when a shopkeeper accused him of smuggling bovines for slaughter. This was the time when Gujajars and Bakerwals of Jammu region even said that they are scared of even taking an injured cow or a sick calf to the veterinary hospital for the fear of being attacked anywhere in the mid way. As Chief Minister Mehbooba could not come to the rescue of Gujjars and Bakerwals even after they complained of threats and reports about mob attacks on them and reports of such attacks appeared in newspapers both in Srinagar and Jammu. Mehbooba did not act against the perpetrators of the mob attack on gujjars and bakerwals even after video footages were displayed on the TV screens by the news channels in Srinagar and Delhi.
As Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition government allowed a communal atmosphere to develop in Jammu , Samba and Kathua districts, the smaller settlements of Gujjars and Bakerwaks are more vulnerable to threats from both the government and BJP backed hindu communalists today that they were under the Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition rule in the state.
It was only during twenty three month long PDP-BJP coalition rule that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the first time in the history of Jammu & Kashmir took out armed marches through the streets in different towns, including muslim majority ones in Jammu region but Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister never restricted them from carrying out such objectionable marches which gripped fear among the Gujjar and Bakerwal populations even in muslim dominated towns of Jammu region . Even shutdowns against increasing incidents of cow vigilantism in several parts of Chenab valley did not woke up Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister from deep slumber but today when the survival of her own party has come under threat she in a desperate attempt for discovering new safer heavens for her party talks about the security and safety of Gujjars and Bakerwals in Jammu region . Mehbooba as Chief Minister could not even object to the choice of Vijaypur for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as the area was one of the largest Gujjar settlements across Jammu, Kathua and Samba district. As Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition government allowed a communal atmosphere to develop in Jammu , Samba and Kathua districts, the smaller settlements of Gujjars and Bakerwaks are more vulnerable to threats from both the government and BJP backed hindu communalists today that they were under the Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition rule in the state.
