NEW DELHI:
BJP and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s PDP may be partners in the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir today, but during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister the saffron party was “distrustful” of Mufti, according to former RAW Chief A S Dulat.
Dulat claims in a new book “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years” that one of the reasons for the distrust was the “kind of help” Mufti got during the 2002 State Assembly elections. He does not elaborate.
A Special Advisor on Kashmir in Vajpayee’s PMO after his retirement as Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Chief in 2000, Dulat narrates an episode during the then Prime Minister’s visit to Srinagar in April 2003 when he famously extended his hand towards Pakistan.
“When Vajpayee went to Srinagar in April 2003 and famously extended his hand towards Pakistan, a stage was erected high up for the public meeting. Sitting up on the stage were Vajpayee and Mufti. Mehbooba wanted to join them, but she was politely told that there was no place for her on that stage.
“Vajpayee did not want her up there. He did not want her projected. There were grave doubts about Mehbooba in Delhi, about her links with the Hizbul Mujahideen and the help it provided her and her party during the 2002 elections,” says the 75-year-old Dulat, an IPS officer of 1965 batch.
Efforts to reach Mehbooba Mufti did not succeed as she left for Philadelphia early this morning. PDP spokesperson Mehboob Baig declined to comment on this. (AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel