Strongly condemning the serial attacks on innocent civilians in Tral area of district Pulwama, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and party candidate from Anantnag parliamentary constituency Mehbooba Mufti today said the dance of death is timed only to benefit National Conference in the elections as that party is the sole beneficiary of poll boycott.According to a statement issued addressing wayside public meetings in Wachi Assembly segment that she represents in the legislature, Mehbooba said NC is looking at boycott as the only way to prevent its rout as it has failed the state on every front from the hanging of Afzal Guru to non-availability of rations. She was also accompanied by Incharge youth wing Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra; Ataullah Simnani district Coordinator, Zone President Ghulam Hassan Bhat, Party leader Ghulam Mohiudin Wani and many others.
Mehbooba said the cold blooded murder of Ghulam Nabi Mir, Firdous Ahmad Mir and Mohammad Anwar last evening represents another failure of Omar Abdullah government which instead of providing an atmosphere of security is contributing to creation of scare to keep voters away from polling booths.
She expressed her deep grief at the loss of innocent lives and conveyed her heartfelt sympathies to their families. “Every innocent killing in Kashmir is rooted in NC’s original sin of rigging 1987 elections which they are now trying to reenact through poll boycott and as long as this party is a stakeholder in power misfortune and misery would continue to visit JK,” said Mehbooba.
Pointing out the stark difference between the approach adopted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on complaints it receives from J&K and rest of the country, Mehbooba said the obvious double-standards could vitiate the election scenario further. She said it was disappointing that ECI has maintained complete silence and turned a blind eye to the loss of innocent lives in Kashmir and promotion of violence by the NC leadership whereas it has promptly and effectively intervened in other states over much milder events. “The attitude of ECI is adding to the odds against the opposition parties inherent in the situation deliberately destabilized by NC for its electoral gains,” she said.
Mehbooba said after having presided over five and a half years of disastrous governance, Omar Abdullah government sees its only chance in enforcing boycott so it could click to power by default as it had been able to do so last time. She said voters know well that NC wants to perpetuate instability and for that it has been promoting violence as a tool of survival and appealed them to vote for her party and give it a chance to work for changing the destiny of the state.The PDP president said her party’s only objective in seeking people’s mandate is to undo the damage that NC has done to the state in last eight decades. “As long as this party remains in power people of this state will remain at risk of being hanged, shot, disabled, arrested, victimized and disempowered,” she said. “The only way to end bad governance, corruption and denial of justice is to vote out NC in this election as that will set the stage for a total change later in the Assembly elections”.
Mehbooba said PDP is not seeking votes in parliament election for opportunistic alliances like NC whose only aim is to get ministerial berths for Abdullah family members. “We will raise the voice for the people of Kashmir who have been victimized for too long and deprived of justice and even right to life under the NC domination not to speak of other rights”, added Mehbooba.She said we would engage every party is seeking solution to our problems as Mufti Mohammad Sayeed did after 2002 by striking an alliance with Congress for government formation and without compromising on principles and involved NDA in the biggest post-independence initiative on Kashmir. “As representatives of Kashmir we would not need to piggyback on any other party for ministerial berths. There are many regional parties who achieve much more independently than NC did in alliance with BJP and Congress,” Mehbooba said asking what the present coalition has given the state in last five years except tears, death and destruction. “For effective representation of people we don’t have to be any party’s lackeys or make the humiliating compromises that have marked the NC congress alliance” Mehbooba said.
Mehbooba said neither has Farooq Abdullah’s presence in the union cabinet benefitted the state nor have the 10 coalition MPs from the state ever leveraged themselves as a group to fight for our interests. The MP from Anantnag spent most of his time and energies in the last 10 years defending Omar Abdullah’s atrocities on TV channels and is now promising to take up Pathribal in the parliament when he knows he is on his way out. Except for providing political cover to hanging of Afzal Guru, maintaining silence on murder of Kashmir youth, parting with more natural resources and J&K Bank what has this group of worthies achieved in five years to seek votes again, Mehbooba said.
Mehbooba said PDP would try to reorient the politics of the state so as to be able to do justice to all sections of society. We will try to restore the dignity of every inpidual, especially the marginalized sections from all communities and groups living in the slummized urban areas, villages or the Gujjar, Bakarwal and Pahari population inhabiting the far flung mountainous pockets or the backward classes. “PDP has a vision for welfare and political resolution that it unfolded in 2002 action on which could be revived only by voting for this party” added Mehbooba.She said though there is growth, development stagnation prevailing throughout the state, but the ruling party has deliberately ignored the whole South Kashmir for political reasons over the last more than five years. “If voted to power we will revive the whole development process all across the state which we had started in 2002,” she said.