KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference Sunday said that PDP’s deceitful politics stands to threaten the State’s political identity and special status as the party was now blatantly facilitating successive “assaults” on Article 370 and the “State Subject Laws”. Addressing a workers’ convention at Brenwaar, Chrar-e-Sharief on Sunday, Senior National Conference Leader and Former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said PDP had now abandoned all promises made in its “Agenda of the Alliance” with the BJP just like the party had earlier abandoned every single political in its 2002 manifesto, a statement issued by the party here read.
Addressing the convention in Brenwaar, Abdul Rahim Rather said that PDP’s “Agenda of the Alliance” with BJP was based on three pillars of deception.
“First PDP promised the revocation of AFSPA if voted to power. The present Chief Minister used every single election platform to promise that she would revoke AFSPA if her party was voted into power. Exposing PDP’s intentions and its opportunism, the Central Government has officially – in replies to question in the Parliament – refused to even review the possibility of revocation. So in fact we are now further away from AFSPA revocation than we were before PDP forged an alliance with the BJP. People clearly remember how PDP had promised to get AFSPA revoked in its 2002 election manifesto as well. Both in 2002, when PDP came to power with Congress and in 2014 when PDP joined the BJP – it has effortlessly given up on the demand to get AFSPA revoked in exchange for the Chief Minister’s chair”, the senior NC leader and Former Finance Minister said.
“The second pillar of the PDP-BJP Agenda of the Alliance was to ensure the return of power projects from the NHPC to the State of J&K. In the last year, the Union Power Minister and the Central Government have officially and categorically rubbished this demand on two different occasions. On the first occasion, this was done in the presence of the State’s Finance Minister who refused to speak up and oppose this unjust and contemptuous rejection of a just, legitimate demand of the State. Now, a couple of days ago the Union Power Minister has yet again made it amply clear that the BJP-led NDA Government was not willing to even consider the return of power projects nor would it agree to increase the power-share for the State in hydel projects owned by NHPC. With this, the second pillar of the Agenda of the Alliance has collapsed without any scope of review”, Abdul Rahim Rather said while speaking in Brenwaar.
The Senior NC Leader and Former Finance Minister said the third pillar of the PDP-BJP ‘Agenda of the Alliance’ was PDP’s promise to get the Central Government to engage in meaningful and sustained dialogue with Hurriyat leadership and also with Islamabad.
“Not only have Hurriyat leaders been prevented from going to New Delhi to meet visiting diplomatic delegations for the first time in the last two decades, PDP has also ensured an unprecedented crackdown on Hurriyat leaders – hounding and humiliating them at every possible opportunity that could have been used to usher a new phase of reconciliation and engagement. Today almost every single Hurriyat leader has accepted that PDP is the creation of covert agencies and they have also realized that PDP is the Trojan Horse that has been created and sent within our walls to weaken the State’s special status and further erode the State’s Internal Autonomy. We have seen this happen in numerous ways in the last year and more recently – we have examples of NEET, NFSA, Sainik Colonies and the plan of constructing three lakh houses for ‘floating population’ in the Valley. These are serious, well-conceived and elaborate plans to change the State’s demography and by-pass its State Subject Laws and subvert its special status. All along, the two successive PDP Chief Ministers refused to say a single word in opposition”, the Senior NC Leader added.
Lashing out at the PDP-BJP Government for leaving the people of the State to the mercy of God, Abdul Rahim Rather said the Government had absolved itself of all governance related responsibilities as the incompetence and lack of experience in its leadership had resulted in miseries and hopelessness on the ground.
“Projects started by the previous Government have been abandoned and the State’s youth are faced with the highest rate of unemployment in recent times. Our Tourism Industry has witnessed a fatal slump and the State Government is least concerned. Its only priority is to further the agenda of BJP in J&K”, Rather stated.
National Conference Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani highlighted the enormous failure of the PDP-BJP Government in dispensing its basic governance related responsibilities and said people were being politically persecuted to quell an overwhelming opposition against PDP at the grassroots level, the statement qoted Aslam as having said.
“Our ration depots and ghats are without ration and NFSA has robbed our people of the right to basic nutrition and sustenance. Roads macadamized on an alleged warranty of three years have turned into river-beds and potholed paths within just a few months. There is no sign of governance anywhere in the State and the Chief Minister seems completely clueless in tackling the situation. Political slogans, speeches and photo-opportunities are not substitutes for basic governance”, the NC Provincial President added.
