US, China want to push India to war
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 1: While launching scathing attack on the BJP and the J&K National Conference, the PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti today slammed both the parties of failing to deliver on development and peace agenda in the Jammu and Kashmir despite getting a huge public mandate.
Recalling former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s legacy, she emphasized that the region’s issues cannot be solved from Delhi but only through unity among the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “The BJP, which has been in power both in Delhi and the Union Territory since 2018, has completely failed to bring peace and development to Jammu. Tell me, what has the BJP done for Jammu after getting 30 seats? Unemployment is at its peak, resources have been handed over to outsiders and inflation has broken people’s backs,” the PDP president said while addressing a function in connection with the party’s 26th anniversary.
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She also accused the National Conference , which secured 50 seats, of offering empty promises without delivering any results. “Then comes the National Conference, saying give us votes and we will give free electricity, 12 gas cylinders a year, jobs to youth and stop the mining mafia from outside looting our sand and gravel. But now it’s been a year and what has the BJP done – the party to which you gave 30 seats? What has the National Conference done to whom you gave 50 seats? Nothing,” Mehbboba Mufti said.
“Until there is complete peace, there can be no development. The BJP keeps fooling the people of Jammu, while the National Conference continues to mislead the entire region,” she added.
“Mufti Sahab always said that the challenges of unemployment, underdevelopment and unrest affect the entire state, not just one region,” she said, adding Jammu and Kashmir remains backward despite abundant natural and human resources.
She further said, “Mufti Sahab believed that the solution to the problems of Jammu and Kashmir does not lie in Delhi, but here in our own state. People in Kashmir think one way and people in Jammu the other. When Kashmir moves in one direction, Jammu moves in another. Mufti Sahab used to sit in Jammu even during the summer. I would ask him why he was here in the heat and he would say – until the people of Jammu and Kashmir think alike and walk the same path, the problem cannot be resolved.”
Reaffirming the PDP’s commitment to peace, Mehbooba recalled how her father had left the Congress to build a political alternative focused on dignity and dialogue.
“Mufti Sahab didn’t want peace through force, but peace with dignity,” she said.
Referring to the impact of conflict in the border areas like Poonch, she said, “For the first time, people in Jammu have seen what war truly means – how children and women suffer. What do we gain from it?”
Launching attack on the Centre for its economic policies, Mufti said, “Trump recently said India’s economy is dead. We are giving free rations to 80 crore people because we can’t provide employment. Our schools and hospitals are crumbling while we spend heavily on weapons to fight Pakistan.”
The PDP chief warned that rising global tensions and arms trade could provoke another India-Pakistan war.
“Today, it takes just one blast in Kashmir or Jammu to start a war. China, the US, Israel – they all want to test or sell weapons. It’s easy to trigger a conflict and we will be the ones to suffer,” she said.
Targeting the BJP’s political narrative, Mufti accused it of fuelling communal divisions for votes. “The BJP talks of divide, demolishes mosques and exploits Hindu-Muslim sentiments. This year alone, half a dozen tribal children have died in violence. I grew up here and never witnessed such a divide,” she said.
She said BJP gets votes across the country by invoking the Hindu-Muslim divide and on the dead bodies of this enmity. They play the Hindu-Muslim card. She urged both regions to walk together for the sake of progress.
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