Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) party president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday accused the government of using Covid-19 guidelines as an excuse for denying permission to hold a youth convention at her residence in Srinagar. "If Prime Minister Narendra Modi can do rallies in Uttar Pradesh, then how will Covid spread by our meeting?" Mufti said in a press conference. "The J K administration didn't permit us to conduct a youth interaction on the pretext of Covid. Why Covid applicable only to us, and not to other parties? Thousands of youths who had come for the convention were not only stopped but beaten up, their clothes were torn," she added.