Had PDP not formed Govt with BJP, Jammu would have repeated 1947: Mehbooba

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, May 31: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday in Legislative Council that Jammu would have witnessed "1947-type communal riots" if her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not have formed government in partnership with BJP.

"A situation identical to that of 1947 (communal riots) would have been created if we had ignored the mandate BJP got in Jammu and formed the government with Congress and other parties after the 2014 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir", Mehbooba Mufti said in reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks on Governor's address in the Upper House.

According to her it was a compulsion but also logical to form the government in alliance with BJP. She pointed out that Kashmir had given mandate of ruling to PDP and Jammu to BJP. "It would have been unrealistic and imprudent to categorically ignore the mandate BJP got in Jammu", Mehbooba said.

"Muslims and Hindus are in equal proportion in Chenab valley and Poonch-Rajouri. In that case, Kashmir and Jammu regions would have pitted against each other. Muslims and Hindus would have engaged in a war and clashed with each other. So it was a compulsion but also in consonance with logic and reason to form the government with BJP", Mehbooba said.

Mehbooba said that there was another reason why PDP formed the government with BJP. She said that for years, Congress had struggled to build bridges with Pakistan but it had completely failed. "BJP leader Modi called Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to the oath ceremony in Delhi and recently attended marriage ceremony of Sharief's granddaughter in Lahore", Mehbooba asserted.

"My father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed changed the whole discourse of engagement with political rivals. He made India and Pakistan move forward to the extent that Gen Musharraf declared the UN resolutions on Kashmir obsolete. Only BJP could do it. But unfortunately, our successors abandoned it and they did not pursue it after 2005. Today, we are making a fresh start from zero", Chief Minister said.

Mehbooba said that unlike Omar Abdullah's induction as a Minister in Vajpayee's NDA government in 1998, PDP had made a common minimum programme in the interest of people with Congress in 2002 and again the Agenda of Alliance with the BJP in 2015. She said that opening of roads between two parts of Jammu and Kashmir across the LoC besides the 2003 ceasefire were the achievements of her father.

"We are now trying to open Suchetgarh road. We want Suchetgarh to become a major tourist attraction. I have just asked BSF officers to start parade till Pakistan makes its mind for a Wagah-like daily evening parade", she added.

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[Published in today's STATE TIMES]