KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference Thursday said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s comments about “by-passing” the State Legislature in extending the National Food Security Act to the State was a clear sign of PDP’s covert understanding with the BJP to completely undermine the State’s Special Status.
Senior NC politicians while addressing a party convention at Chadoora in Central Kashmir said Mufti Sayeed’s statement that “there was no need for legislation” and that the Central Act would be directly extended to J&K was “unprecedented and shocking”.
“National Conference had demanded ration distribution according to the 2011 census and the party had left no stone unturned to highlight this demand. We have always represented the aspirations and grievances of the people and we will continue to strive for their best interests. The political interests and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be compromised with. Mufti Sahab’s remarks about by-passing the State Legislature have created panic across the State and is being seen as the first brazen self-admission by PDP of being hand-in-glove with the BJP in a plan to divest the State of its Special Status,” NC General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said.
“The PDP-BJP Government of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed continues to alienate the youth of the State as there is an enormous political vacuum since we have a Government and a Chief Minister who have effectively sidelined all core political issues. The political narrative is conspicuously missing and that can have far-reaching adverse implications on the prospects of safety and stability in J&K. All political promises made by the PDP stand ridiculed and abandoned by them – be those promises about the return of power projects, promises about rehabilitating the flood victims, promises about revocation of AFSPA or the promise of going for an alleged ‘Battle of Ideas’ with the Separatist Leadership – most of whom have been persecuted, incarcerated and politically ostracized by the PDP-BJP Government,” he stated, an NC statement said.
NC Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani lashed out at the PDP-BJP Government for trying to “undermine the constitutional sanctity” of the J&K Legislative Assembly by volunteering to “surrender its role in scrutinizing the extension of Central Acts into the State through a Mirror J&K Bill proposed in the State Legislature – as has been the practice in the past”. “This is a big statement with tragic, alarming connotations. Mufti Sahab has a long track-record of playing pivotal roles in eroding Article 370 as a part of various dispensations and parties and this statement is in line with that Anti-J&K conviction he has always nurtured within his heart. National Conference will not allow the PDP-BJP nexus to sideline or disrespect the constitutional mandate of the Legislative Assembly at any cost,” Nasir said.
“PDP is alienating the youth and wasting all dividends of peace that were realized after intensive political efforts to bring normalcy in the State. Not only is this Government pushing our youth back towards the path of militancy but it is also abandoning all pro-youth initiatives taken by the Omar Abdullah-led Government. The Return and Rehabilitation Policy that was fully supported by Mr. Omar Abdullah and National Conference has been effectively abandoned by Mufti Sahab. Today even 80 year old senior-citizens who manage to reach their homes on this side of the LoC through established unconventional routes are harassed, arrested and put behind bars like terrorists. Is this the ‘healing touch’ of Mehbooba Mufti and Mufti Sayeed? A high number of PSAs have been slapped on the youth by the PDP-BJP Government – completely belittling its own slogan of ‘Battle of Ideas’. This Government is a big farce that has come into being through an evil, opportunistic nexus between the PDP and the BJP,” he added.
