Jammu: “Getting back power projects, revoking of AFSPA, and resolving the Kashmir issue in a peaceful manner through dialogue is in the agenda of alliance and we are working on it,” Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday. She said that her party had entered into an alliance with the BJP because her father, the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, “was a visionary person who always believed in the institutions of democracy and he was impressed by Indian democracy.”
“Mufti sahab left the Congress as he believed that it was a national party. To work particularly for the people of state he created his own party. I believe that we all should speak in one tone for the betterment of the state rather than blaming each other,” she said.
“Technically we are connected with India but we want to integrate with it emotionally,” she said.
Over revoking of AFSPA, she said, “When conditions in the Valley will get normal, it will be revoked.”
Replying to charges of the opposition that she sought votes from the people of Kashmir in the name of stopping Modi from turning Kashmir into Gujarat, she said that she sought votes to stop the BJP from gaining a foothold in Kashmir, but when her party (the PDP) secured the mandate in Kashmir and the BJP secured the mandate from Jammu, she had to make an alliance and accept the people’s mandate.
“In 1953 the Congress betrayed NC, but still they made alliance with them. It is only to bring Kashmir out of daldal (quagmire) that we joined hands with BJP. We have an agenda of alliance on which our government is working, but these problems will be solved gradually, not abruptly. Article 370 stands; it will not be revoked. AFSPA will be revoked, but it will take time,” she said.
She thanked BJP MLAs for stopping communal tension in Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch and Chenab valley when Kashmir was burning.
Reacting to the opposition’s charges that her government had made the lives of Jammu Muslims hell, she said that when students in Kashmir were not allowed to attend their schools, thousands of Kashmiri students shifted to Jammu for education and studied without any fear.
She urged all the political leaders of the country to help in solving the lingering issues of Kashmir.
She also presented her salute to the security officers who were working on the ground for bringing normalcy to the state.
Want to integrate with India emotionally: CM Mehbooba Mufti
