Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday threatened to step down if New Delhi fails to hold dialogue over Kashmir. The statement comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, put normalcy as a pre-condition to dialogue in a meeting between the two in New Delhi on Monday.
“If there is no heed paid to the demand of holding talks, I am ready to leave my chair,” reliable sources in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) quoted from the Mehbooba Mufti’s address at a meeting of party legislators here on Tuesday.
During the meeting at Mehbooba’s Faireview residence at Gupkar, the PDP president said that time had come for the central government to work on issues agreed in the Agenda of Alliance. She has asked her party members to reconnect to people in Kashmir, especially the youth at grassroots, and work for avoiding any further deterioration in the situation in valley, party sources said.
“The party members should reconnect with the grassroots without any delay and work to engage youth so that the situation does not slip out of hands once again,” sources said she told the meeting.
Tuesday’s meeting came as a part of a series of meetings the party has been holding with its leaders and workers to chalk out a way forward in view of the present situation in Kashmir, a party member told Kashmir Reader.
On Monday, the Chief Minister held a core group meeting in which she said the ruling dispensation in New Delhi is ready to initiate a dialogue on Kashmir but wants atmosphere to be conducive first.
She informed the members about her meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, at New Delhi on Monday. She told the meeting she was categorical to New Delhi that the overall peace and development in Kashmir depends on the dialogue.
Kashmir Reader