PDP slams NC for ‘validating’ Article 370 abrogation, urges J&K CM to stand up for people’s rights

Srinagar, Mar 3 (PTI) PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti on Monday accused the National Conference of “validating” the abrogation of Article 370 and urged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to stand up for the rights and self-respect of his people.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state also said its problems were not limited to statehood restoration.

Reacting to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s address in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on the first day of the budget session, Mehbooba said there was no mention of the resolution for the restoration of Article 370 passed by the House in November.

“This government did not dare make a mention of the resolution that it had claimed was for the restoration of Article 370,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supremo said at a press conference.

“Our chief minister says he does not want to be a Kejriwal. No one is asking him to be Kejriwal but, for God’s sake, stand up for the rights and self-respect of your people. Why did the people vote for you?” she asked.

The PDP chief was referring to AAP supremo and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who spent several months in jail in a liquor policy case.

Mehbooba also said the problems of Jammu and Kashmir were not limited to the restoration of statehood.

“We are faced with the problem of dispossession. We are being dispossessed from our properties, minerals, jobs, etc. People have elected you to set these things right,” she said.

Mehbooba said her party ran an alliance government with the BJP from 2015 to 2018 but did not allow the saffron party to enforce its agenda.

“It was our agenda that became the agenda of the alliance — be it amnesty for stone pelters or writing letters to separatists for holding dialogue. Unfortunately, it seems the National Conference has succumbed (to pressure from the BJP),” she said.

The PDP supremo highlighted that while the BJP got the public mandate in Jammu, the National Conference secured 70 per cent of votes in the valley.

“We are not saying you have to do wonders in three months. The BJP was against the special status for Jammu and Kashmir from day one, even when it had no power. How can you say that you cannot do anything on Article 370? You can at least say that what happened in 2019 was wrong and it should be undone,” Mehbooba said.

The Centre abrogated Article 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and reorganised it into two Union territories in August 2019.