Congress on Monday ridiculed the alliance of BJP and PDP in Jammu and Kashmir saying the two were strange bedfellows in the same bed who do not see eye to eye to each other.
“It is something to do with the fact that they are strange bedfellows. They are strange bedfellows in the same bed and they do not see eye to eye to each other.
“And yet contrary to the mandate of the people they have come together. One looks at Jammu and the other looks at the Valley. Like twins that shall perhaps never meet,” Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said at the AICC briefing.
He was replying to a question about Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed’s remarks that his government will proceed with phased removal of AFSPA, an issue on which BJP has been very cautious.
Sibal said as regions, Jammu and Kashmir were integral but the difference was in the approach of the two parties.
“One is pushing for Jammu and the other is pushing for the Valley. And it is unfortunate that suddenly real politics has come into play…These contradictions will come forward all the more as time passes by,” Sibal said.
To a question about seven-member delegation of the separatist outfit Hurriyat Conference meeting Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, Sibal curtly said, “Ask Modi ji. He will tell you about biryani, rogan josh and koftas, he should tell you.”
During 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the PM candidate of BJP, had targetted the UPA over its handling of Pakistan issue umpteen times.
Mufti today said he cannot scrap AFSPA, which gives immunity from prosecution to the armed forces, in “one go” but assured that it will be removed gradually.
He maintained that the Army, which is apprehensive over this move, will be taken on-board over the decision.
PTI
