Excelsior Correspondent
BARAMULLA, July 10: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti today said that National Conference was beneficiary and mainly responsible for the Kashmir problem.
Addressing large public meetings at Baramulla, Sopore and Pattan today, the PDP leader said resolution of Kashmir and restoration of trust between the State and the rest of the country should get priority to achieve over all development and prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir. She said the mistrust was the result of the U-turn and flip flop of State’s premier political force (NC).
“They set up different counters at different times to suit the family interests of party’s leadership. Soon after independence the party broke ranks with its allies to lead a 22-year-old struggle for plebiscite in which two generations of Kashmiris got consumed without achieving anything. But in 1975, they did a complete volt face to get power and propounded the ominous ‘wavelength with Centre theory’ to seal the sell out of rivers and power projects”, Mehbooba maintained.
Mehbooba further said, “the political instability has only helped keep accountability and democratic competition out of the system which impacted many generations in J&K and helped vested interest cultivated and represented by National Conference. Soon after losing power the party launched another emotional exploitation enterprise to call for autonomy and restoration of pre-1953 position only to be forgotten once back in power. Rigging in 1987 elections following the power sharing formula with Congress proved the proverbial straw on camel’s back and people of the State found themselves literally against the wall after they found all democratic options closed on them”, the PDP leader added.
Mehbooba said this atmosphere of mistrust has converted every wrong committed in J&K in the name of official definition of nationalism and security right in the eyes of rest of the country. All wrong practices, be it rigging in elections in 1987 leading to militancy or corruption which is at its peak today or mis-governance are condoned in the name of a flawed interpretation of national interest, she asserted. She said even though the union cabinet identified the trust and governance deficit as reason for 2010 unrest that cost 120 lives nothing changed as a false peace was clamped in Valley. She said resources of J&K belonged to its people and the arrangement with NHPC needs to be renegotiated.
Senior party leaders Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Mohd Dillawar Mir, Javed Hussain Beig and Ghulam Qadir Parray also addressed the gathering.
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