People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday reiterated her call to the BJP government to hold talks with the people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, saying as long as the Kashmir issue remains unresolved, peace will not come. Mehbooba exhorted the people to vote secretly for the constituents of the Manifesto Alliance (PAGD) in the next assembly elections to thwart the BJP’s attempt to gain power.
The PAGD is an alliance of several parties, including the National Conference, the PDP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). Former Chief Minister Mehbooba said, “Kashmir has been waiting for a solution for the last 70 years.. Unless the Kashmir issue is resolved, there will be no peace in the region and for this we will work with Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” Negotiation is necessary.”
Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba, while addressing a workers’ conference in Ramban on the last day of her week-long visit to Jammu, asked this question, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both went to Pakistan, but when we talk about it I talk (to hold talks with the neighboring country) why they (BJP) get angry.” .
Aimed at 370 too
Taking a dig at the BJP over its claim that the party has done everything right after the abrogation of Article 370, he said, “If their claim is true, then what is the point of deploying 10 lakh soldiers in Kashmir.” Is it necessary?” Calling upon the people to vote for PAGD to keep BJP out of power – whether the parties form alliances or go in the fray alone – he said, “BJP wants to grab power and on 5 August 2019 Wants to stamp its unconstitutional and illegal decision. We have to show maturity and use our votes to defeat their wrong designs.
Mehbooba took a dig at the BJP for naming the Nashri Tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway after late leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee and said a local politician or a saint would have been named better. Calling upon the people to maintain communal harmony, he said, “We joined Mahatma Gandhi’s India and they want to convert it into the India of his assassin Nathuram Godse. J&K has already slipped out of their hands and will slip further if corrective measures are not taken.
Mehbooba also spoke on The Kashmir Files
Responding to a question on ‘The Kashmir Files’, a film based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s, the PDP president said that the BJP is promoting it with the intention of polarizing the people. Instead, BJP’s effort to rehabilitate Pandits in the last eight years would have been better, she said. Terming the delimitation commission as a “BJP’s commission”, Mehbooba said her party had already rejected it. He said, “The commission has disturbed everything through its draft resolution. We have no faith in it.”