Srinagar, Nov 2 (HS): PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday blamed the National Conference (NC) for the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that if Kashmiris are viewed with suspicion across the country today, the NC is to blame.

Addressing a large gathering of party workers at Sher-e-Kashmir Park here, she said the NC has been changing its statements and policies since day one, leaving Kashmiris confused and making them suspect in the eyes of the rest of the country. “Things have come to a point where we are branded Pakistani even for saying As-salamu alaykum or InshaAllah,” she said.

Speaking about why the PDP was formed, she said: “The sole purpose of forming the PDP was that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been left stunned into silence, just as they are today. We wanted to give them a free atmosphere in which to breathe, so that they could speak and express their pain.”

“We must ask who is responsible for the situation we are trapped in today,” she said. “Our young people are being beaten up in universities outside the state, many are languishing in jails, they are being denied passports, our Gujjar brothers are being evicted from their land, and India no longer trusts us.”

Turning to the NC’s history, Mehbooba claimed that party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah acceded to India 79 years ago even though Jammu and Kashmir was a Muslim-majority state. “The accession was made looking at Gandhi ji and Nehru ji, which was a good thing,” she said. “But just two years later, the NC changed its policy and raised the slogan of a plebiscite, and because of that Kashmiris have been looked at with suspicion in this country to this day.”

According to her, “the NC first acceded to India, then raised the plebiscite slogan for 22 years, and after stepping down from the prime minister’s chair to accept the chief minister’s chair, it raised the slogan of autonomy, which made Kashmiris suspect before the country’s leadership.” She said the NC has kept changing its stand and sowing confusion in Kashmiri minds.

Recalling her late father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, she said that when he returned home after finishing his studies at Aligarh, he raised the slogan “Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara”, but “did not change his faith or his language”. “The late Mufti Sahib tried to bridge the gap the NC had created,” she said. “He wanted India to trust Kashmiris and Kashmiris to trust India. He invited the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Kashmir so that people’s dignity could be restored.” According to her, Mufti Sahib got roads reopened, had colleges built and introduced the Rehbar-e-Taleem scheme, but was not given enough seats in return to deliver Kashmiris from their troubles.

She said those who taunt the PDP over its alliance with the BJP forget that they themselves are responsible for the troubles Jammu and Kashmir faces today.

Referring to Dr Farooq Abdullah’s recent statement, Mehbooba said: “The NC recently said once again that Pakistan is our protector. That again signals to Delhi that Kashmiris are with Pakistan. NC leaders say one thing here and speak another language when they go to Delhi.”

Criticising the present government, she said it uses the PDP as an excuse to hide its failures. “This government has failed to keep its promises,” she said. “People got neither free electricity nor free gas cylinders, and one lakh people did not get jobs. The PDP is being made the scapegoat to cover up these failures.”

She said the PDP’s agenda is clear and unambiguous, and that the party does not believe in double-speak. “Whatever we say, we say openly and without fear,” she said. “We told Delhi too that if you do not mend your ways, you will end up like Jammu and Kashmir after 2019.”

Appealing to the Centre to reopen the door to dialogue, she said: “The Centre should choose the path of talks with the people of Jammu and Kashmir instead of using the UAPA and the PSA. It should heal people’s wounds and reopen the roads that have been closed, so that Kashmiris can travel the world and return home in the evening.”

Mehbooba said that restoring the people’s dignity and healing their wounds is the PDP’s basic mission, and that although attempts have been made to break the party, its agenda remains strong. She said Jammu and Kashmir is the crown of the country, and that attempts to remove it could have dire consequences. The country, she said, should trust Kashmiris, and peace cannot be imposed here by force.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Zahoor Hussain Bhat