*Will hold tri-colour, J&K flag together
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 9: Former J&K Chief Minister and PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti today said that initiating fresh dialogue with Pakistan and all the stake holders within J&K and opening of cross-border roads may bring ever-lasting peace in the region and solution to the Kashmir issue.
While talking to media-persons here today, the PDP chief made this assertion while advising the BJP to take a leaf out of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s book.
The former J&K Chief Minister cautioned that militancy was on the rise in Kashmir with more youths preferring ‘militancy over going to jail’ after no middle path was left and voices of dissent silenced through the muzzle of power.
She said attempts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere by politics of hatred and division. “The people like us are facing problems to live in Kashmir due to an increase in militancy under BJP rule,” she asserted.
“They were saying militancy has finished but the reality is that at least 10 to 15 youth are joining militancy from each village,” Mehbooba maintained.
It was PDP president’s first visit to Jammu after release from 14 months of detention under the Pubic Safety Act (PSA) following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year.
She said the militancy is on the rise because “BJP have silenced all the voices and not left the middle- path for the people. The youth is thinking of two options — whether to go to jail or pick up the gun, and he chooses latter to get killed rather than going to the jail.”
The PDP leader said the situation along borders is also alarming as local residents are living under the constant threat to their lives due to the continued cross-border shelling.
When asked how it is possible when there is no let-up in Pakistani shelling and mounting civilian casualties, she said, “We have to pick up a leaf from former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s book.”
“Despite the Kargil war and Parliament attack, he entered into a friendship with Pakistan as a result of which the militancy had come down and the border firing also had stopped,” she maintained.
“We have to take a leaf out of that book and start a dialogue with Pakistan and with the stakeholders in J&K. When we can hold eight rounds of talks with China which martyred our 20 soldiers and we did not even raise our finger,” she asserted.
“We are talking to them to seek one inch of our land, though they have occupied 100 square km of our land. Why this double standard? They should remember Vajpayee who is also their mentor and act upon his policy book,” Mehbooba said.
She said “both sides of Jammu and Kashmir are ours. We have to open the roads to bring the two parts of J&K together and look for an everlasting solution to the J&K problem so that peace returns to the region and China, which is showing aggression, stops.”
Mehbooba said she wanted J&K to become a bridge of “peace and friendship” between India and its neighbours. She said her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had a vision of opening cross-border roads between the two parts of J&K like Suchetgarh-Sialkot, Srinagar-Kargil-Skardu, Nowshera-Mirpur and Kotli and the solution to the problem lies in the dialogue.
The PDP chief clarified that she will hold the tri-colour and the flag of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State together, saying as an MLA she had reaffirmed her faith in the J-K Constitution and the sovereignty and integrity of India as both are inseparable.
She had last month said that she was not interested in contesting elections or holding the national flag till the Constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year were rolled back, sparking protests in Jammu.
“We are the people, especially in the Kashmir valley, who upheld the tri-colour high over the years at the cost of thousands of our workers who were martyred,” she maintained.
Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, besides the RSS, without naming it, she said, “Those moving with ‘half-pants’ and where their leader sits, do not hoist the tri-colour (at their headquarters) and they are giving us lessons on the national flag.”
She said her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed picked up the national flag when they were being dismissed as ‘insects of filthy drain’ and subjected to social boycott.
“We, including the BJP members, have taken an oath in the Assembly and Council that we will affirm our faith in the Constitution of J-K and will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India. First, it was the J-K Constitution and then the sovereignty and integrity of the country. How is it, they cut one finger and leave the other, it is not right,” she remarked.
Asked whether she will hold the tricolour, Mufti said, “I had already replied that I have taken an oath of the J-K Constitution when I became the MLA for the first time and I affirm my faith to the Constitution of J-K and uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India – both of which are interlinked. J-K flag and Indian flag, I will uphold both these flags together.”
She accused the BJP of “breaking the relations” of Jammu and Kashmir with the country by its last year’s decision of abrogating the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcating it into two Union Territories.
“I am saying give us our flag and the Constitution back, the merchandise you have looted in the daylight after conspiring under the darkness of the night have to be returned with interest,” the PDP president said.
She said the people in Nagaland had recently said they do not accept the flag of this country and the Constitution, why these “half pants” did not take out protest marches against them.
“When I said we will raise both the flags, they came out with protests and burnt my effigies but when the people in Nagaland are saying, there is no murmur and discussion on the television,” Mufti said.
She attacked the BJP for its policies and claimed that this party will meet the same fate as that of outgoing US President Doland Trump.
Accusing the BJP of being most corrupt party in the country, Mehboba said , it would sell all the resources of the country before it goes out of power, “ They are accusing us of corruption. I think they have beaten all previous records of corruption. They were not having any foothold but look at the huge office buildings of the party today. Where has the money come from and how have their accounts swelled in the name of party fund?”, she asked.
The PDP chief alleged that BJP has nothing else to give to the people of the country. Therefore, they are engineering division in the society in the name of religion and region.
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