Mehbooba breaks silence over BJP’s backstab
‘Mufti was made to run from pillar to post’
PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday said her father and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was made to run from pillar to post by the BJP-led government at the Centre for even the constitutionally guaranteed funds.“Despite having taken a huge political risk of going against the public sentiment in Kashmir by aligning with BJP, he was virtually made to run from the pillar to post by New Delhi to get even the constitutionally guaranteed funds for the development of the State,” she said in a statement issued after her meeting with Governor N N Vohra.
The Governor had invited the PDP chief to clarify her stand amid the political uncertainty over government formation in the state.
“Although PDP faced various challenges in the 10 months of its alliance with BJP, unfortunately, Mufti Sahab’s resolute decision (to ally with BJP) was not reciprocated by the central government, the way he expected it to be,” Mehbooba said.
“It was the credibility and stature of Mufti Sahab that despite facing enormous resource constraints and frequent unsettling issues, he kept the things moving on the governance and development fronts and even ventured out into the areas in Kashmir, especially in Srinagar, where no mainstream politician would dare to go,” she added.
Mehbooba said her father entered into an alliance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the hope that given the decisive mandate enjoyed by Modi, Government of India would take effective and realistic steps to address the political, economic and administrative challenges confronting J&K to ensure lasting peace and stability in the State.
“Unfortunately instead of addressing the real challenges confronting J&K, Mufti Sahab’s government was kept busy in sorting-out various contentious issues repeatedly being raised by certain quarters in and outside the State,” she said.
Mehbooba said if a government is to be formed in the State, it will have to take tangible measures to address the causes of alienation, trust and development deficit in Jammu and Kashmir and work towards finding a long-lasting solution to the problem plaguing the State for the past more than six decades.
“Today, it is not about the BJP and PDP. It is about what we tell the people about fulfilling Mufti Sahab’s vision. We need tangible confidence building measures to be taken by the Central Government to give the new government in J&K a fillip,” she said.
“The Centre needs to create an environment to infuse confidence, and unless that happens, we cannot move forward,” she added.
The PDP chief said most of the crucial political, economic and administrative issues that need immediate attention through tangible confidence building steps, both by the State and the Central Government, have already been emphasized in the PDP-BJP ‘Agenda of Alliance’.
“And if implemented with sincerity of purpose these could to a large extent respond to the complex problems of J&K, faced as it is with decades long political uncertainty, economic disempowerment, development deficit, unfulfilled aspirations and mounting unemployment,” she added.
