Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 31: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said that need of the hour is that the Government of India must stop this muscular policy and understand that dialogue is the only way forward.
Mehbooba, while addressing workers’ conventions in Pattan said that her party’s alliance aimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat Conference. “We put our lives and party in danger by joining hands with the BJP. We did it only for the people of the State. We would have formed the Government with Congress as well. We thought that Modi has the biggest mandate and if he wishes he can repeat the endeavours of BJP and initiate talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat Conference”, she said.
She said that she fought for Article 35A and withdrew FIR of 12000 youth. “After Mufti Sahib’s death I was not ready to form the Government, they (BJP) were after me for three months, then certain development happened that forced us to form a Government. Had BJP managed to break PDP and form a Government, they would have destroyed everything here. I took a risk and put myself between the BJP and people. I fought on 35 A, withdrew FIRs of nearly 12000 youth and called for ceasefire during the Ramzan”, she said.
Without naming national electronic media, the PDP president accused them of creating trouble in Kashmir. “Apart from unemployment and granting electric poles, there are other issues here. Mufti Sahib used to say that even if we construct the roads with gold and built bridges with silver, the problems of the people would not end as they forget everything after watching the news in the evening. The worst suffrers are the youth of the State who have picked up stones and guns”, she said.
Mehbooba also addressed another rally at Sonawari where she said that it was the agenda of the PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that accorded a sigh of relief to the people of the State after 2002 elections. She said that prior to that, dialogue with Pakistan, reconciliatory approach and pitching for peace used to be considered as a taboo within the political landscape. She said that it was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who initiated an era of reconciliation in Jammu and Kashmir and laid foundation of the ideology that declares that the State must become a bridge of friendship between India and Pakistan.
The former Chief Minister said that the previous coalition of PDP and BJP was dictated by the numbers of the election results in which both the parties were at par and forming coalition was a brave attempt to engage with the new India which is dominated by the Hindutva forces.
Mehbooba reiterated PDP’s stand vis-a-vis banning the socio-political and religious organisation- Jamaat-e-Islami, terming such a measure as “undemocratic, unconstitutional and an attempt to hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims all across.”
The PDP president added that her party will remain in the forefront to oppose any move aimed at harassing, suppressing and targeting the people of State and that the policies being adopted by the Central leadership towards the State are turning the already crises ridden region into a war zone.
Addressing the gatherings, senior PDP leader and former Minister Dr Mehboob Beg said that, when there was no presence of BJP in 1996 in Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq Abdullah with 60 MLAs aligned unnecessarily with the BJP with a sole objective to secure a junior Ministerial berth for his son.
He added that soon after Abdullah joined hands with the BJP, he gave away whatever was left of State’s economic prospects in the shape of power projects to the Centre.
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