KL Report
SRINAGAR
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti has said misdeeds and malpractices have made the National Conference leadership vulnerable to a level that they are not able to negotiate anything good for the benefit of state, people.
Addressing various roadside meetings in Hazratbal segment of Srinagar parliamentary constituency Mehbooba said, “A party (NC) that could not get a mobile services for its state is now claiming to restore the Autonomy and defend Article 370 which is clearly beyond it.” She said the leaders who face serious charges against themselves have neither any moral authority nor the courage to speak up for the people as they realize their vulnerability and are comfortable with the luxuries of power. She said they can never take a stand on the rights of the state and its people but resort to rhetoric at the time of elections to impress voters and later kneel before anybody who is in the power at the Centre.
“During his days in the NDA government at the Centre Dr Farooq Abdullah failed to persuade the Centre to start the mobile service in the state not to talk about Autonomy and other things. But it was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who made it clear to Atal Bihari Vajpayee that Kashmiris too have a right to communicate through mobile telephony and told him that everything in Kashmir should not be looked through the security prism,” she said and added the NC till date failed to get any benefit for the people.
Mehbooba said Omar Abdullah instead of working to build on the gains of the PDP-led government reversed everything and also by way of his inefficiency and lack of any goodwill helped to further the alienation among people particularly the youth. She said Omar Abdullah banned SMS services, put gag on cable TV and harassed the local press for telling the truth so many times during his more than five years of misrule.
She said Dr Farooq Abdullah who is involved in the multimillion cricket scam should have been in the jail if he would have been a politician of any other part of the country. And, similarly, if Haji Yousuf episode would have happened in any other chief minister’s home he would had faced the law.
The PDP chief said Dr Farooq Abdullah, in 1996 besides having two-third majority in the state legislative assembly, didn’t work for the welfare of ordinary people but made every effort to harm them by implementing harsher oppressive methods in the shape of Task Force, Ikhwan and POTA. By siding with the BJP at the Centre the NC made huge compromises on the interests of the state by selling the seven most feasible power projects to the NHPC only to get junior ministry’s job for Omar Abdullah.
She said it was only with the change of guard in the state in 2002 the Vajpayee government could take up historical initiatives in Kashmir which got immense relief in the lives of people. And, later, the improved situation on the ground in J&K could help to bring India and Pakistan together.
She said it is encouraging to see the people have now understood the politics of the NC which has not only been deceitful but has been always focused towards power. She said there is a growing realization on the ground that it is the NC which has damaged the basic cause of Kashmiris by always tilting towards power and not seriously pursuing the interests of people from whom it has been taking votes from the last 65 years.
“Using the people’s mandate to seek power instead of working to uphold the aspirations and sentiments of Kashmiris the NC leadership has served a big blow not just to its own credibility but to the people’s faith also,” she added.
Mehbooba said in 1975 NC backstabbed the people by giving up on the ‘Raishumari’ demand without caring about the sacrifices of the masses which they had given on its call; it (NC) repeated its deceit in 1987 by not allowing the enlightened youth to become part of the system. “On both these occasions more than anything else it was the lust for power which made the NC blind to think beyond,” she said and added by rigging the 1987 elections the NC paved a way for a full-fledged armed rebellion in the state and the devastation and bloodbath it brought is in front of us all.
