Mehbooba junks Shah’s charge of bias against Jammu, Ladakh

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday reacted sharply to the BJP’s claim that it was lack of development of Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state that compelled the saffron party to pull out of the coalition government earlier this month.

“Allegations of discrimination against Jammu and Ladakh have no basis in reality. Yes, the Valley has been in turmoil for a long time and the floods of 2014 were a setback, therefore needed focused attention. But that does not mean that there was any less development elsewhere,” she said in a tweet, asserting that her commitment to the common minimum programme of the coalition never wavered.

A day earlier, BJP president Amit Shah had said at a rally in Jammu that the party pulled out of the alliance with PDP on June 19 as the Mufti-led government had failed to ensure equal and balanced development of Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state along with the Kashmir Valley.

“BJP is a party of patriots. Governments hold no meaning to it but development and the security of the country do. The PDP-led government failed to ensure equal and balanced development of all the three regions of the state. Jammu and Ladakh were discriminated against so we decided to pull out of the government,” he had said.

Reacting to the charge, Ms Mufti, in a series of tweets, said on Sunday that results of her government’s performance were there to see and advised the BJP to review the performance of its own ex-ministers most of whom belonged to the Jammu region. “Results on the ground for all to see. If anything they should review the performance of their own ministers, who largely represented the Jammu region if there were any such concerns, none among them either at state or central level talked about it during the last 3 years,” she said.

The former chief minister said that many other false charges have been levelled against her but sought to remind Mr Shah that her party’s commitment to ‘Agenda of the Alliance’, the pact between the two sides in 2015, never wavered. “Many false charges levelled against us by our former allies. Our commitment to the Agenda of Alliance, co-authored by Ram Madhav & endorsed by senior leaders like Rajnath Ji, never wavered. It is sad to see them disown their own initiative & label it a ‘soft approach’,” she said.

Referring to her refusal to handover the probe into the gangrape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad girl in Kathua’s Rasana area to the CBI, as had been demanded by the BJP, she said, “Not handing over the Rasana rape & murder case to CBI, getting the pro-rapist ministers removed & also issuing orders not to harass the Gujjar & Bakarwal community in the guise of anti-encroachment drives were my duties as CM to provide a sense of security to both communities.”

Mr Mufti also defended her stand on Article 370 and holding of talks with Pakistan and separatists which is believed to have contributed to the souring of relationship between the PDP and the BJP.

“Status quo on Article 370, dialogue with Pakistan & Hurriyat were a part of AoA (Agenda of the Alliance). Encouraging dialogue, withdrawing cases against stone pelters & the unilateral ceasefire were much needed measures to restore confidence on the ground. This was recognised & endorsed by BJP,” she said.

Taking a dig at Mr Shah, the former chief minister said, “After expressing concern about freedom of expression in J&K following Shujaat’s murder, their MLA, notorious & even punished for his role in the aftermath of the unfortunate Kathua case still threatens journalists belonging to the Valley, so what are they going to do about him?”

She was referring to former BJP minister Choudhary Lal Singh’s warning to Kashmiri journalists of meeting the fate their colleague Shujaat Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir who was assassinated by gunmen outside his Srinagar office on June 14, over their coverage of the Kathua case.