Srinagar: Iltija Mufti was appointed media advisor to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and her mother Mehbooba Mufti, a senior party leader said.
The decision to appoint 35-year-old Iltija Mufti, who takes a plunge into politics with this move, as media advisor to the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister was taken by the party high command, the leader said.
Iltija Mufti has been in charge of Mehbooba Mufti’s social media handles since 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream leaders including her mother were under arrest as the Centre abrogated Article 370 and divided the erstwhile state into two union territories.
“It is an honour for me to help in whatever way possible at a time when the people of J&K find themselves thrown in utter chaos, despair and darkness. I hope I can make a difference,” Iltija told PTI after her appointment.
Announcing Iltija’s appointment, a party spokesperson said she emerged as a leading voice and a vociferous critic of the government’s decision to “illegally abrogate” Article 370 at a time when J&K’s mainstream leaders were put behind bars.
In September last year, Iltija said she did not want to join politics under the prevailing “terrified atmosphere” in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, she had not completely ruled it out, saying nobody knows the future.
“In the current atmosphere where politicians have become journalists and the latter stenographers, I do not want to do politics. Politics is about building your relationship with the public. Certain situations come in your life (which guide you),” Iltija Mufti had said at a conclave in Jammu.
She had said that being the granddaughter of the late PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed she had seen politics from close quarters since her birth. “For other people, it might be attractive…I have no attraction for it.”
Referring to her statements after the detention of her mother under the Public Safety Act (PSA) following the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into Union territories in August 2019, she had said, “I came forward and started talking because of a vacuum, otherwise I would not have as I have no attraction for both politics and camera.”
PTI