Sriangar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti lost her cool at a press conference on Thursday, ending it abruptly when journalists asked her questions about her role in dealing with the current unrest.
She got up abruptly saying ‘thank you’, and ‘chayu chai cupa” (have a cup of tea) and left, in reply to a query from a scribe even as Singh remained seated.
This infuriated journalists who left the conference saying they had not come to enjoy a cup of tea in times when Kashmir was witnessing such a huge bloodbath.
Many Journalists took to social networking sites to vent their anger and express their disapproval.
“They can't take away our self-respect,” noted Journalist, Yusuf Jameel wrote on his face book page.
“The tone, the gesture in which Mehbooba Mufti invited journalists for a cup of tea was not only inappropriate but also insulting,” another senior Journalist, Izhar Nazir Ali, remarked. “To me, it seemed as if she was addressing her party workers, not newsmen. It speaks of her arrogance and her callous attitude towards her guests.”
“I understand that she was uncomfortable with some questions put forward by the journalists, but that doesn’t mean that she’ll humiliate journalists by inviting them to tea in an insulting manner,” he added.
“It seemed more of a reprimand than an invitation. It is not only insulting but also demeaning," said a local journalist who wished not to be named.
“Nowhere will you see a politician behaving like this,” wrote a female journalist. “It was not in a good taste. I have not seen an approach as rude as this.”
“Out of mere helplessness, she made so many blunders that Rajnath Singh had to sort of step in to correct them”, wrote another Journalist Junaid Katju.
However, this isn’t the first time that the first woman CM of Jammu and Kashmir has ruffled the feathers of the 4th estate. On May 17, Ms Mufti had invited journalists to a lunch party in she didn’t bother to interact with them at all.
