Mehbooba Mufti reluctant to clarify, BJP looks for way out

As Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appears to be reluctant not to publicly retract her statement in which she dubbed all opponents of the Article 370 as “anti-national”, the “humiliated” BJP is looking for a “way out” to face its core constituency in the Jammu region. Fearing that Chief Minister’s speech on the floor of the Legislative Assembly would demoralise the committed cadre of the party, BJP leaders are trying to create an impression among party workers that the intention of Chief Minister was not to humiliate Sangh Parivar.
Reliable sources said on the direction of party leadership, state president of the BJP Sat Sharma had met Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday evening and conveyed leaders’ concern over her speech. “The CM has bluntly told the BJP state president that she would not compromise on the stand taken by her on Article 370. She told that she would not give clarification on her statement,” a source in BJP told Kashmir Post.
After realising that the CM was not going to retract her statement, BJP leadership has decided to find a possible way out to save the government as the party high command, sources said, was not ready to indulge into this issue before the UP elections.
Meanwhile, Sharma has admitted that the CM had violated spirit of the Agenda of Alliance by raking up the controversial issue. “As far as the Agenda of Alliance is concerned, both the parties agreed to shelve contentious issues to smoothly run the government. After entering into an alliance with the PDP, the BJP has never raised the demand of abrogation of Article 370 to maintain the spirit of the Agenda of Alliance,” Sharma told Kashmir Post and observed that dubbing all opponents of Article 370 and Article 35-A as “anti-nationals” was violation of the spirit of the Agenda of Alliance.
Reliable sources in the BJP said the party leadership had decided to show the CM’s full speech to the party cadre at different level to remove the “misconception” about her attack on Sangh Parivar.
Meanwhile, the Congress today attacked the BJP for humiliating those leaders of the Saffron Party who had struggled throughout their lives against Article 370. “What is the fun of installing statues of Dr Shyama Prashad Mukherjee at Madhopur in Punjab and Pandit Prem Nath Dogra at Dogra Chowk in Jammu, who had launched stir against Article 370?” asked Congress lawmaker Jugal Kishore Sharma.
The duo had founded Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which was later turned into the BJP, with the core agenda of abrogation of Article 370.