Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 23: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken positive stand on Jammu and Kashmir by calling for dialogue on Kashmir unrest saying majority of the people in the Valley want talks and reiterated that there were only handful of people, who were indulging in stone pelting and creating trouble.
In a brief chat with media after addressing PDP leaders at the party office at Gandhi Nagar, Mehbooba said the Prime Minister has taken commendable stand on Jammu and Kashmir by calling for dialogue with the people and hoped that this would help create congenial atmosphere in the Valley for talks.
“The meeting of Opposition parties including former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is good. All the mainstream parties should contribute in restoration of peace and normalcy in the Valley,” she said and welcomed statement of the Prime Minister for holding dialogue for permanent and lasting solution to Kashmir problem.
Reiterating that majority in Kashmir wants peace and normalcy, which can be restored by holding dialogue, Mehbooba reiterated that there were only handful of people, who were indulging in stone-pelting and protests, triggering unrest in the Valley.
“We too want dialogue. The Prime Minister has made a good beginning by calling for dialogue. We hope the process of dialogue would be set into motion soon and peace would prevail in the Valley,” she said.
Recalling the statement of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that political process and good governance would solve Kashmir problem, Mehbooba said Narendra Modi has also spoken on similar lines.
“We hope peace would soon return to Kashmir and the Government would be able to devote its full time towards development of the State,” she said.
Earlier, addressing the PDP senior leaders including office bearers and cadre at the party office at Gandhi Nagar, Mehbooba Mufti vowed to pursue the agenda of political resolution, economic empowerment and good governance, saying the State has suffered “political subversion” and “uncertainty” over the last seven decades and can ill-afford any further disruption.
She said some forces with “dangerous agenda” are active on the ground to divide the people in the name of religion and region and their every attempt has to be defeated with firmness.
Expressing her resolve to establish a new system of justice and equality in the State, she said the aim of her party is to script a new chapter in the political history of the State by removing trust deficit among different regions.
She sought people’s cooperation in maintaining calm so that developmental initiatives can take shape.
Mehbooba, who heads PDP, asked her party cadres to reach out to all sections of the society to confront the emerging challenges posed by the different “divisive and subversive forces” in the State.
“Political subversion and uncertainty that the State has faced in the last seven decades has already taken a heavy toll on the State, its economy and human resources.
“It can ill-afford any further disruption and the attempts being made currently by some quarters to squeze the space for its residents will have to be met with maturity, wisdom, collective action and democratic assertion of our rights,” she said while addressing a meeting of the prominent leaders, office bearers, and party cadres here.
She said her party will carry forward its agenda of political resolution, economic empowerment, good governance and employment generation and convert Jammu and Kashmir into a real welfare State.
Noting that this vision is mentioned in the party’s ‘Agenda of Alliance’ with BJP, she said her party has been able to inspire confidence among a majority of the people in all the regions of the State about its ability to solve the multiple problems faced by Jammu and Kashmir on political, economic, administrative and financial fronts.
“PDP is a cementing force to unite all regions and sub- regions of the State,” Mehbooba said, adding her party, unlike other political parties, has never indulged in doublespeak to hoodwink the people for petty political gains.
“Earning faith and trust of the people of J&K is the biggest achievement of PDP,” she said and asked the PDP cadres to take the party’s message of peace, harmony and stability to the grassroots level.
The Chief Minister said the agenda of the PDP could, to a large extent, respond to the complex problems of the State, faced as it is with decades long political uncertainty, development deficit, unfulfilled aspirations, mounting unemployment, corruption, nepotism and favoritism.
Expressing satisfaction at the steady growth of PDP, as a platform for change in Jammu & Kashmir, she said “the credit goes to the disciplined, dedicated and ideologically motivated cadres” of the party and people living in all regions of the State.
“It is because of the selfless efforts of the party cadres that PDP has now emerged as a respectable voice from the State that channelizes the aspirations of the people across regions, religions and communities- representing the beautiful mosaic of the diversity of J&K,” she said.
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