SRINAGAR: How did former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti communicate with her politically active eldest daughter Iltija despite being under detention ever since the hollowing of Article 370 on August 5?
Through notes exchanged via a tiffin box, as Mehbooba was allowed home-cooked food, Iltija revealed, adding she would respond with letters tucked into chappatis while being prepared at home.
Mehbooba and NC leader Omar Abdullah were on Thursday booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).
Putting out a long post on Twitter using her mother’s handle, Iltija said: “I received a crumpled and tersely worded note, the first of many furtively exchanged letters. I found it in a tiffin box that contained home-cooked food sent for her.”
Disclosing how she managed to respond, Iltija said, “Soon the dilemma of dispatching a reply arose. My grandmother found an ingenious solution. The letter I wrote was folded into a tiny square and carefully sealed, rolled and locked inside the middle of a chapatti.”
In the first note, Mehbooba advised Iltija against using her Twitter handle. “They have taken an undertaking that I won’t be using social media to communicate. In case someone else does it, he’ll be booked on charges of impersonation,” she wrote.
Iltija said people who question BJP’s actions were being branded anti-nationals and blamed a section of “pliable media” for creating a narrative that derides students, Kashmiris and Muslims.
“Question BJP’s actions & you are an ‘anti-national’. A pliable media is liable for creating a narrative that derides students, Kashmiris & Muslims as Tukde-Tukde gang,” she said.
Situation different now: Iltija
Iltija revealed that her Twitter post dealt with the modus of communication during the initial weeks of Mehbooba’s detention, as there was no other access.
The situation has since changed as she is now allowed to meet her kin twice a week.