Mehbooba to take call on J&K government when convinced of alliance objectives

Mehbooba Mufti, who is seen as the successor to her late father as the chief minister, held a meeting with party leaders on the issue of govt formation. Mukhtar Ahmad/ Rediff.com reports from Srinagar.

Toughening its stand on the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday said the party will take a call on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir as and when it is confident that the vision and mission of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will be carried forward and implemented in letter and spirit.

“Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party with the hope that the Central government headed by Narendra Modi will take decisive measures to address the core political and economic issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir and its people,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said while addressing a meeting of the party leaders, legislators and office-bearers convened in Srinagar on Sunday.

Mehbooba said unfortunately, instead of partnering with and implementing Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir, certain quarters, both within Jammu and Kashmir and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the State government’s energies in fire fighting and propitiation, a party statement said this evening.

“In such violative circumstances around, we will have to reassess whether we can absorb the shocks which Mufti Sahab had to do so frequently in his effort to forge reconciliation between the regions and the people of the State,” she said according to the statement.

“PDP can’t form a government just for the sake of power but, if it does, it will be, as envisioned by Mufti Sahab, with the objective of addressing the core political and economic issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir as was done by the PDP-led government between 2002 and 2005.”

Mehbooba said the government of India shall have to take substantive measures towards implementation of the PDP-BJP 'Agenda of Alliance' in the interest of peace and stability in Jammu and Kashmir and for this PDP needs a set time frame to be worked out.

“The PDP will have to reassess whether the Central Government is ready to trust the people of Jammu and Kashmir and carry out implementation of ‘Agenda of Alliance’ with sincerity of purpose,” she said.

“It has been made clear in the very preamble of the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ that the document is an effort to seek national reconciliation on Jammu and Kashmir and facilitate formation of a coalition government in the State that will be empowered to catalyse reconciliation and confidence building process and create conditions to facilitate resolution of all issues of Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba according to the statement said.

Mehbooba said as has been made clear in the ‘Agenda of Alliance’, it is aimed at sequencing the political process and the economic development and striking the right balance between the two to create a virtuous cycle of peace and prosperity that will accord normal life to the coming generations, “especially those regions who have lived in perpetual strife and conflict.”

“It has been further made clear in the Agenda of Alliance that the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir including the special status in the Constitution of India,” she said and added that it has been further made clear that the coalition government in the State will seek to support and strengthen the approach and initiatives taken by the government to create a reconciliatory environment and build stakes for all in the peace and development within the sub-continent including normalization of relations with Pakistan.

Mehbooba said while real progress was made during the past 10 months towards the implementation of good-governance practices listed in the “Agenda of Alliance”, there was little movement forward on implementation of political and economic initiatives. 

Image: Mehbooba pictured at the meeting of the PDP leadership in Srinagar. Photograph: Umar Ganie