Srinagar, Dec 23 In response to the press release issued after the meeting of the political affairs committee (PAC) of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under the chairmanship of its President Mehbooba Mufti in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of “rigid approach” due to which Agenda of Alliance (AoA) could not be implemented, BJP has retorted by stating that in order to recover its lost political base, PDP is resorting to blame game based on falsehood. “Shaken by desertion of its senior leaders and rejection by its cadre, the ramshackle PDP is now trying to regain the lost ground through ‘manufactured statements’ which are far from truth. Despite best efforts of BJP to coax Mehbooba Mufti to respect the spirit of AoA which rested on ending regional discrimination, an holistic and balanced development, transparent and responsive government, she stuck to her agenda of blatant discrimination, Kashmiri hegemony, soft-separatism and ignored good governance,” stated Brigadier Anil Gupta, State Spokesperson of the Party. Inaccessibility of the administration and elected representatives, mass corruption, growing radicalisation alienated the Kashmiri youth from her Party.
Rather than accepting the ground reality gracefully, PDP leadership in a desperate bid to keep its flock together is trying to take shelter of its “original core agenda including self-rule.” The reality is that people have rejected the party blaming it for their outright betrayal. South Kashmir considered to be the one-time bastion of the Muftis and PDP is proving to be a big minefield for the party and its leaders are finding it difficult to even visit their constituencies, said Brig Gupta. No amount of blame game will help PDP in the revival of its political fortunes. “The party should concentrate on setting its own house in order through deft and astute leadership rather than blaming BJP. There is a lot of difference between Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti. A fact being ignored by her and which appears to be the main cause of her party’s declining fortunes,” said Brig Gupta. He further added, “There are numerous blots on the political fibre of PDP which the people, youth in particular, are unwilling to forgive because of which the party has lost the support of the people across the Valley.”
As far as non-implementation of AoA is concerned, Mehbooba has to blame herself only. Despite the agreement to keep contentious issues at bay, she was the first to politicise the hearing in the Supreme Court of a petition filed by a NGO on legality of article 35A. She went to the extent of threatening, “There will be no one to give shoulder to the Tri-Colour in Kashmir.” The brutal assault carried out by Jammu & Kashmir Police on patriotic students of NIT, Srinagar for carrying the “Tiranga” in the campus was also ordered by Mehbooba only.
The ousted Vice President of PDP, Sartaj Madni, began a sinister campaign of holding the AOA as hostage to revival of Indo-Pak dialogue. While the BJP continued to insist that there are many issues in the AoA beyond Indo-Pak relations that affect the lives of the people of the state living in miseries which need urgent resolution. However, there was no initiative taken for their resolution. In complete betrayal of the spirit of AoA, PDP continued to pursue its soft-separatist Valley-centric agenda ignoring the aspirations of the people of Jammu & Ladakh, asserted Brig Gupta
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