Only PM can solve J&K crisis, says Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar/New Delhi: J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone can resolve Kashmir and take its people out of the bog.

“Humein daldal se koi agar bahar nikal sakta hai toh woh PM Modi hain. Woh jo faisla karenge, mulk support karega (If there is anyone who can take us out the bog it is PM Modi. The decision he takes will be supported by the country),” she said.

The statement comes at a time when the relations between her ruling PDP and government ally BJP are said to be deteriorating. The BJP state unit and the RSS have been questioning her ways of checking escalating violence in the Valley.

The CM said that Mr Modi enjoyed the mandate of the people of the country to address issues such as Kashmir, and was the only hope left for the people of the state to take them out of the quagmire.

“The previous Prime Minister also wanted to go to Pakistan but he couldn’t summon up courage. PM Modi went to Lahore which is a sign of power he enjoys and an example of his moral authority,” she said after inaugurating a flyover in Jammu.

She said, “He (former PM Manmohan Singh) had repeatedly said he wants to visit his ancestral home in Lahore. It was an excuse as he too actually wanted to have a solution to this issue but couldn’t do it as he lacked the strength.” PM Modi had made a surprise visit to Lahore on his way back from Afghanistan in December 2015. It was the first visit by an Indian PM in a decade.

The CM reiterated that it were her late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and then PM and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee who successfully worked towards improving relations with Pakistan but these were again unhinged as a result of lack of initiatives by the UPA governments.

Recalling the “path breaking initiatives” of the three-year Mufti government beginning in 2002, she said India and Pakistan signed a historic ceasefire agreement and started cross-LoC bus and truck services.

But such initiative could not be taken forward and the lava back in Kashmir was simmering and the same surfaced in 2008 and 2010 and it is what the Valley is witnessing again, she said and added, “I’m saying it again and know I will be criticised but if anyone can solve Kashmir issue it is PM Modi.”

The CM while complimenting the people of Jammu for having maintained communal harmony and brotherhood “despite provocations” said that nobody would be allowed to disturb peace, and mischief mongers would be dealt with sternly.

Her statement calling PM Modi the “only hope” came on a day when BJP president Amit Shah said that the government would not hold any talks in J&K unless violence stops. “The Modi government has already clarified before the Supreme Court that it would not hold any talks unless violence stops in J&K,” he told reporters in Agartala. He said the government and security agencies are working on a strategy to tackle the situation in the restive state.