Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 21: National Conference today lashed out at the PDP for issuing statements that contradict both Mufti Sayeed’s role in the State’s troubled history as well as the policy of deceit and contradictions that PDP ‘foolishly’ wishes to thrive on.
In a joint press statement here senior NC leaders, Sharief-ud-Din Shariq, Dr Mehboob Beigh and Mohd Akbar Lone said If Mufti Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti were so concerned about Afzal Guru, what did they do while charges against Afzal Guru were filed during their tenure and with Mufti ‘s tacit support and approval ? Wasn’t it Muzaffar Beig, PDP’ candidate from Baramulla who was engaged to defend Maqbool Bhat in the Supreme Court and ended up absconding and leaving Maqbool Bhat without a defense counsel ? There are serious apprehensions and theories that this was done deliberately against the interests of Bhat, who was later hanged.
They said PDP talks of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat without speaking of Gaw Kadal, Bijbehera, Handwara massacres – those which were not only allowed but facilitated under the command of Mufti Sayeed as the Home Minister of India ? There are also questions on Mufti’s role in allegedly refusing to prevent the assassination of Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq by ignoring his repeated pleas for granting security to him. To add to the miseries – the mourners in his funeral processions were fired on while ‘Mufti Sahab’ remained in direct command of the security forces.
Wasn’t it Mufti Sayeed who defended the Armed Forces against the Kunan Poshpora victims on the floor of the Parliament in Delhi? Now, the same Mufti Sayeed wants to tell us that he will represent the pain of Kashmiris in Delhi through his candidates for the Parliamentary Polls? Why did he then choose to humiliate and speak against the Kunan Poshpora victims in parliament back then?
The same Mufti Sayeed who talks about AFSPA revocation remained conveniently docile about the issue during his run at power. While Mehbooba Mufti has the audacity to claim moral high-ground for offering to relinquish her security over this issue in the past, one ponders over the fact that she still carries around security – despite AFSPA being in place years after her symbolic ‘tamasha’ and cosmetic threat.
Now, Mufti has started bashing the UPA and openly garlanding the Narendra Modi led NDA – overtly as well as covertly in alleged meetings with Modi’s top-brass in Delhi. While Mufti Sayeed deems the UPA a failure now, he was content and satisfied while he was a part of a coalition with Congress. Mehbooba Mufti on the other hand ironically claims that NC has cut of its hands by allowing Congress to field its candidates from Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh. Irony is that the same PDP left no stone unturned to beg and plead with the Congress and tried various machinations to sabotage the NC-Congress coalition. The contradictory statements issues by Mufti Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti since the last week, show the abject frustration of the party at PDP’s phenomenal erosion in the Anantnag Parliamentary seat and their embarrassing inability to make even the smallest inroads in the other five seats, they maintained.