Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 16: Senior National Conference leaders today questioned the moral standing of People’s Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on corruption, saying that he will go in the annals of history as a Chief Minister credited with tagging Jammu and Kashmir with the stigma of being second most corrupt State after Bihar.
“Such was the intensity of this stain that the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had to publicly admit and say in 2007 that his Government would do all that is required to remove this blot”, the leaders said in a joint statement, adding that there could be no telling commentary about the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir under PDP led Government.
The leaders said that it does behove well for a former Chief Minister to test the public memory and pretend like an ostrich. The peope are sagacious enough to differentiate between right and wrong, they maintained.
Signatories to the statement included legislators, Rachhpal Singh, Aijaz Jan, Bimla Luthra, Dr Shehnaz Ganai, former Ministers Govind Ram Sharma, Syed Mushtaq Bukhari and Babu Ram Paul besides Vice President, Rattan Lal Gupta, Provincial Secretary Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, former legislators and senior leaders Th Kashmira Singh, Bushan Lal Bhat, Satpal Lakhotra, Jugal Mahajan, Vijay Laxmi Dutta, Dharamveer Singh Jamwal, Taranjeet Singh Tony, Surnder Singh Bunty, Anil Dhar, Iqbal Wani and Rajiv Chuni.
Referring to the observations of Mufti Sayeed about Delhi elections and its impact on institutionalizing transparency in system, the National Conference leaders wondered as to what the former Chief Minister was trying to make out. They referred to policy of divide and rule during the brief stint of PDP led Government, which they called a devastating chapter in the political history of the State, and its later machinations that led to regional and communal polarisation in the wake of 2008 agitation. “The people are yet to come out of that nightmare, which had led Jammu and Kashmir to devastation and destruction”, they maintained.
The National Conference leaders said that during Mufti Sayeed led Government corruption and nepotism were institutiohnalised. Several of PDP legislators remained mired in controversies with some of them facing serious corruption charges. “The State Accountability Commission had in fact indicted some of the legislators, who continue to be the frontal leaders of the party”, they added.
“Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has made corruption-free Jammu and Kashmir his major agenda and it is with this mission in mind that the State Accountability Commission has been fully made functional and the State Vigilance Commission put in place”, they said while expressing the resolve of national Conference to fight corruption with full might.
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