NC rejects Jethmalani as ‘link between BJP and PDP’

‘He is drumming up support for Mufti. Separatists should come clean on the deal’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Wary of the activity of some conflict managers from New Delhi, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) has dismissed head of the NDA-floated erstwhile Kashmir Committee and former union Law Minister of the Vajpayee government, Ram Jethmalani, as a ‘broker between BJP and PDP’.

Apparently stung by visits and meetings of eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani and conflict manager Madhu Kishwar with a number of separatist leaders and the PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, NC has finally broken its silence with a hard-hitting statement today.

“The mask of credibility of Jethmalani has slipped and it is now clear that his mission is to drum up support for Mufti”, NC’s spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said. A policy statement like today’s is believed to have been issued not without the approval of the acting President and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah.

“Now it is proven beyond doubt that this BJP MP has no love for the Kashmiri people or their cause.  He is here for the furtherance of their agenda to abolish article370 with the help of Mufti” Sadiq added. He said that NC’s additional General Secretary, Dr Mustafa Kamaal, stood vindicated with Jethmalani’s activities. In a recent statement, Dr Kamaal had said that Mufti and his PDP were the creations of BJP, RSS and other communal forces.

“The fact that a BJP MP has come all the way from Delhi to garner support for the PDP shows where their loyalties lay and how anti-Kashmiri the PDP, BJP and now their newfound friends are” said Tanvir Sadiq without naming hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and others of the separatist politicians Jethmalani had met here last week.

“These unfolding events expose Mufti’s desperation in the face of the government’s continued success at all fronts that he has to get a BJP MP and other people to lobby for support from the APHC” said Tanvir in his prompt reaction to reports carried in a local daily. “These events and the recent Pakistani flag show how desperate and worried he is”.

The NC spokesman hit at the separatist camp terming it shameful to interact with “a broker like Ram Jethlmalani, whose sole aim is to get Mufti on the power saddle and his appeal to them shows his hidden agenda”.

According to the NC spokesman, the people of Kashmir had a right to know if all of their sacrifices till date were only for striking a deal between Mufti, APHC and the BJP through a BJP MP to get him (Mufti) back to power. “Their discreet silence is proving as such” Tanvir remarked, asking the Valley’s separatist leadership to come clean on Jethmalani’s mission and their meetings with the BJP leader.

“The separatist and the so-called proponents of Azadi should come clean on the reported deal between them and Mufti”, Tanvir asserted. “We demand that all the people who have met BJP MP and others who according to news reports have come here to strike a deal between the APHC and PDP should come clean on this and let the people know if they have sold their conscience” he suggested.

During his recent visit, Jethmalani has called on a number of Kashmiri separatist leaders. He was midway also joined by Madhu Kishwar who is known in Valley as a PDP supporter after a separatist-turned-mainstream politician confronted her on television in 2010 and alleged that she was “batting for a particular party”. However, the NC spokesman has not directed his party’s ire on her.

Over a decade ago, BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre had promoted Jethmalani-led Kashmir Committee in its interactions with all shades of Kashmir politics. Journalists Dileep Padgoankar and M J Akbar too were members of the committee that met a large numbers of separatist as well as mainstream leaders in a series of visits but failed to achieve a breakthrough in the political stalemate. It did not exist for the next nine or ten years.

Since last year, Jethmalani has constituted it afresh and involved some new members, including a Kashmiri student. Significantly, hardliner Geelani and Jethmalani have met on a number of occasions, visiting each other’s residences in Srinagar and New Delhi.

END