Mehbooba Mufti warns BJP against bid to break her party

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday warned the Centre that any attempt to weaken the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) by causing defections will have dangerous consequences for the state as it will erode the trust of the Kashmiris in Indian democracy and give birth to new militant leaders.

“If Delhi intervenes and breaks our party, and makes Sajad Lone or whosoever as the chief minister, it will erode the trust of the Kashmiris in Indian democracy. Any intervention from Delhi will be taken seriously,” she said.

“Like in a family, every political party can have problems. We will sort them out but if Delhi tries to dismiss the voting rights of people like 1987 and if it tries to create divisions and interfere it would give birth to a Syed Salahuddin (Hizb supreme commander) and a Yasin Malik as it happened in 1987. If it tries to break the PDP, then the outcome will be dangerous,” she said.

Mr Lone is an MLA of the People’s Conference from the Handwara constituency. Besides him, there is one more lawmaker of his party in the Assembly.

Ms Mufti’s political bete noire and National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah reacted sharply to her comments on Friday.

Mr Abdullah tweeted, “She must really be desperate if she is threatening the Centre with renewed militancy if PDP breaks up. She seems to have forgotten that militancy in Kashmir has already been reborn under her most able administration.”

In another tweet, the former chief minister said, “Let me put this out here for all to remember — not one new militant will be created with the break up of the PDP. People will not mourn the demise of a party created in Delhi only to divide the votes of Kashmiris.”

Ms Mufti’s public harangue, the first one since she stepped down as chief minister last month, also drew flak from a rebel PDP lawmaker and former coalition partner BJP which withdrew support to the Mufti government alleging lack of development in Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state.

After the PDP-BJP government fell, about half-a-dozen PDP legislators raised a banner of revolt against Ms Mufti’s leadership and accused her of nepotism and favouritism.

Political circles in the state are abuzz with rumours that the BJP is trying to cause a split in the PDP to garner the support of the required number of MLAs to stake claim for forming a new government. However, BJP’s national secretary Ram Madhav recently denied such a possibility.

In the 87-member Assembly, the PDP has 28 MLAs, the BJP has 25 MLAs, the National Conference has 15 MLAs and the Congress has 12 legislators, apart from seven others. The magic figure in the House is 44.

Muhammad Yusuf Shah who later became Syed Salahuddin, the “supreme commander” of Hizbul Mujahideen, had contested Assembly elections in 1987 which were allegedly rigged by the ruling National Conference-Congress combine. Muhammad Yasin Malik, now chairman of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was then associated with the Muslim United Front (MUF), an amalgam of Opposition parties, which was allegedly made to lose the election to the ruling combine through manipulations.

The duo and also several others associated with the MUF were also allegedly tortured in police custody after the Farooq Andullah-led government took over the reigns in the state.

Ms Mufti was talking to reporters at the martyrs’ graveyard at Naqshband Sahib after paying tributes to those killed in firing by soldiers of Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh on this day in 1931 during protests against his autocratic rule.

The BJP said that Ms Mufti has only exposed her proximity with the separatists. “She is trying to give oxygen to militants and has, knowing or unknowingly, only exposed her proximity to the separatists,” said BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

BJP’s central committee member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao called Ms Mufti’s remarks bizarre. “It seems she is under tremendous pressure from her own party… Is she now equating her party with Hizbul Mujahideen?” he asked.

Former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister and senior state BJP leader Kavinder Gupta said, “It is very unfortunate that she was ruling the state only a few days back as chief minister and now she threatens of a militant uprising.”

Shia cleric and former minister Imran Reza Ansari who was the first to raise the banner of revolt against Ms Mufti accused her of being “a white collar killer”.

In a tweet, Mr Ansari said, “I am one of the dissenters. Are you Mehbooba Mufti telling me that Delhi convinced me to rebel against you? Wake up from your slumber, you humiliated me for three years.”

“Are you telling me Mehbooba Mufti that people will take to guns because you and your cronies have been driven out of power. It is an end to cronyism. People are celebrating, wake up,” said Mr Ansari in another tweet.

In a sarcastic comment, Mr Ansari said, “I don’t think Delhi is doing it. But I think Russia is meddling in it. Remember they meddled in American elections too.”

Meanwhile, alleging that horse-trading and other “unethical practices” were underway for government formation in J&K, the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party held a protest demonstration near Parliament House in Delhi on Friday to seek immediate dissolution of the state Assembly. The protesters shouted slogans against the Central government and the BJP.