Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said National Conference was once again trying to take people for a ride and insulting their intelligence by blaming its political rivals for its own historical sins.
Responding to chief minister Omar Abdullah’s latest diatribe against the opposition for his own failure in giving the state a clean and performing administration, the party chief Mehbooba Mufti in a statement said this strategy has already failed to impress the people as they are aware of how NC has flourished only on absence of a viable alternative which it always crushed through deceit, bullying, muscle power and emotional exploitation.
Mehbooba said why is Omar Abdullah reversing his own decisions taken in last five years and eating his own words if it is because of PDP that he is unable to perform well? “PDP as a responsible opposition had always cautioned the chief minister against his government’s anti people policies but even then he sang the same song of ‘ PDP being the villain’ and now after the electoral drubbing when he claims to be on a course correction he is repeating his old lines instead of acknowledging how the opposition had tried to help him,” she said.
“NC is frustrated only as it has has been denied a free run with the emergence of PDP and finds fault with a decade old party in spite of having itself remained in power and political command for better part of nearly one century with disastrous results,” she added.
She said previously the ruling party had been able to run away with its blunders, sell outs on state’s interests, corruption and intimidation of political rivals because it had been able to prevent the growth of a public watchdog within the system.
Mehbooba said NC always tried to push political rivals out of the democratic system by resorting to strong arm methods as it did immediately after independence by sending into exile the leading lights of freedom movement like Maulvi Yousuf Shah saheb and hundreds of other workers who could have provided a democratic alternative to it. “It stamped out Congress by first running a character assassination campaign against its leaders organising their social boycott and later by shamelessly jumping onto its lap in worst compromise of Kashmir’s dignity and political interest just for Abdullah family’s power,” she added.
The PDP chief said Omar Abdullah’s funny accusation that PDP is the ‘biggest hurdle to political and developmental changes’ stems from his experience of finding the opposition party a hard nut to crack and resisting the government pressures and baits to prevent it from raising issues that concern the masses. He was not able to fulfil his prophesy of PDP’s disintegration and all their methods of carrot and stick through which they neutralised other parties failed to work with the determined cadres and leadership of PDP which never made any compromise on state’s interests, said Mehbooba.
Urging the chief minister to get his facts correct, Mehbooba said, he is making his already unenviable position more awkward by repeating the baseless allegation that PDP was formed to scuttle the autonomy resolution passed by the state legislature. She reminded the CM that while the PDP was founded on July 28th, 1999, the Assembly resolution was passed on June 26th, 2002.
Mehbooba said the National Conference destroyed the dignity, authority and self respect of the state and it’s highest elected institution when it pocketed the insult of the resolution being thrown virtually into the dustbin by its allies in Delhi and Farooq saheb and Omar continued to serve on the proverbial ‘same salary’. She said for the ruling family it was the job of a junior minister for its then heir apparent which was more important than the interests of the state.
Referring to the damage caused by the NC through its opportunistic alliances, Mehbooba said if it was only for the love of Atal Behari Vajpayee that it became part of NDA as claimed by Omar Abdullah, why had his father given away the seven most feasible power projects to NHPC even without a proper MOU to safeguard at least a fraction of state interest. If the people of Kashmir and Jammu are suffering from endemic power crisis it is because of the NC’s lust for luxuries and the ease with which it can sacrifice the state for political power, Mehbooba said and recalled how NC had even after handing over precious state assets to centre agreed to a ban on recruitment and opening of educational institutions and their up gradation.
Mehbooba said in its current affiliation with the Congress, Omar Abdullah’s party set new records of making compromises on state interests at every stage. She said the ending of overdraft arrangement with J&K Bank in favour of the RBI was a final blow to state’s authority and financial autonomy, though this government would also be remembered as the one when even imposition of curfew was announced from Delhi. She said it was sad that this government which enjoyed unprecedented support from stakeholders in power had failed to secure a single benefit for the people of the state while it did everything to reverse the atmosphere of positivity that the PDP led government had been able to generate in a brief period.