BAMBOLIM: Appealing to the media not to add fuel to fire, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday urged the media to help bring Kashmir closer to the rest of the country.
“The media fraternity should play a key role to bring Kashmir and the rest of the country closer to each other and not add fuel to the fire. They should pick up people who talk good things,” Mufti said in an interactive session at the India Ideas Conclave 2017 in Goa.
“The media keeps on accusing separatists and at the same key time they keep on getting them on the television news programmes in which they are given ample televisions time to spit poison,” she said.
She explained that she does not know the reason why such a thing is done or if it is just because of the Television Rating Points (TRP). Mufti said, “Media should in turn help our state out of the current situation and not add fuel to fire. What is surprising is that they just pick up a random person who is not known to any Kashmiri. They just put him on television,” the J&K Chief Minister said.
Expressing dissatisfaction she said that other people from other parts of India feel that Kashmiris are giving bad words to the country and a result of that they feel that Kashmiris are bad, while Kashmiris feel that other fellow is accusing Kashmir.
“We can get the proof of Kashmiriyat (Kashmir locals) in the act of people who rushed to help the Amarnath yatris. Also last year when there was an accident, locals took passengers to their own houses,” she added.
The India Ideas Conclave was inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, UAE Minister of State Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, Union Minster for State for External Affairs M J Akbar and Former Sri-Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
