Tremendous pressure on PDP to leave PAGD: Iltija Mufti

Srinagar, Oct 25 (PTI) Iltija Mufti, the media advisor and daughter of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, has claimed that her party is under tremendous pressure from the Centre to quit the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), formed in 2019 to fight for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

In an interview with PTI, Iltija Mufti alleged that the BJP might rewrite the Constitution if it gets another term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Asked if the PAGD will continue to work or has already served its purpose, she said the alliance “is immensely popular among the people” and is “the only hope that they have right now”.

Referring to the parties that left the alliance such as the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement of Shah Faesal, she said, “Why did these people leave the alliance? They were made to leave. Let me tell you even now, the PDP as well, we face tremendous pressure from the Centre to leave the alliance but that is not our intention.”

“The alliance was not created just to get power, to fight elections and to share the spoils of the power. The alliance had a bigger purpose, the bigger purpose is to restore Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and to fight for the rights of the people here and to resolve the larger issue of Jammu and Kashmir, keeping in mind the interests of all stakeholders as per their wishes. So, I can only hope that the alliance is able to stick together even in the future,” she said.

The PAGD was formed in 2019 after the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into Union territories.

While refusing to predict the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the third generation politician said the atmosphere in the country was being polarised even on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“To be quite honest, recently I have seen how they are polarising even the Israel-Gaza issue. You see a huge chunk of media has been despatched to Israel overnight. They did not want to cover the atrocities happening in their own backyard in Manipur where we saw extremely unsettling, disconcerting images of women who were raped, who were paraded naked through the streets.

“The fact that they are covering Israel-Gaza so much has a lot to do with the fact that they are projecting it as a Muslim versus others kind of conflict. I don’t know which direction we are heading to but I feel like if the BJP wins next year as well…we will no longer exist because they will undermine everything, overwrite or even change the Constitution completely,” she added.