Srinagar, Jun 19: The PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir was described by late PDP founder Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in 2015 as meeting of the “north pole and south pole” but the BJP’s exit three years later sparked a blame game and led opposition parties to call it opportunistic politics.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the “opportunistic BJP-PDP alliance” set fire to Jammu and Kashmir, killing many innocent civilians and brave soldiers, and that the damage would continue even if the state was put under central rule.
Hours after the BJP pulled out of the alliance government, the Congress leader said, “Incompetence, arrogance & hatred always fails (sic).”
Under the alliance government in the strategically important state, several innocent people and brave soldiers were killed. “It cost India strategically & destroyed years of UPA’s hard work. The damage will continue under President’s rule (sic),” he tweeted.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the BJP had committed a “Himalayan blunder” by forming a government with the PDP.
He said the BJP, a national party, should not have allied with PDP, a regional player.
“The regional parties should have been allowed to form an alliance among themselves,” he told reporters in Delhi.
“The alliance has devastated the state, be it economically or socially, and has left Jammu and Kashmir in a state of ruins,” he said.
The Left parties said the coming together of the BJP and the PDP after the Assembly polls in 2014 to form a government, was itself “opportunistic”.
“Such coalition should not have happened. These two parties have no similarities. They coming together was an opportunistic move to be in power,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
Demanding an all-party meeting, the CPI also criticised the Centre and alleged that the law-and-order situation in the state had been deteriorating since the coalition came to power.
“The situation in Jammu and Kashmir had been deteriorating ever seen the BJP-PDP coalition came to power. The present situation is worrisome. The home minister recently visited the state and met the chief minister and the state authorities.
“He was giving positive signals regarding peace in the Valley. What is the assessment of the Central government nobody knows. The government could have called a all party meeting and shared its assessment,” CPI leader D Raja said.The BJP unit in Jammu and Kashmir said the decision of the BJP to pull out of the government was a “well-thought” decision.
“It is a well-thought decision. In the given circumstances as continuation of alliance anymore would have hurt the national interest,” chief spokesperson J&K BJP, Sunil Sethi told reporters in Jammu.
” It was highly unfortunate that our partner was always trying to tie over hands from taking strong measures against enemies of the nation.”
It was in February 2015 that former chief minister late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said the newly stitched alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a “meeting of the North and South pole”. The alliance was stitched two months after the 2014 Assembly polls threw up a hung verdict.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed the BJP for pulling out of its alliance with the PDP and alleged that the party had “ruined” the state.
“After ruining it, BJP pulls out of Kashmir. Didn’t BJP tell us that demonetisation had broken the back of terrorism in Kashmir? Then what happened?” Kejriwal asked.
CPI-M leader and MLA M Y Tarigami said the leadership of both the PDP and the BJP are answerable before the people of Jammu and Kashmir and rest of the country for their unprincipled alliance which ended today but not before sending the state in deep crisis.
The Shiv Sena, which partners BJP in the Centre, wondered if the BJP’s decision to part ways with PDP was taken to avoid “uneasy questions” over violence in the state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Dubbing the saffron party’s decision as a “political move”, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the coming together of the PDP-BJP to form the government in the state was “unnatural and unholy”.
He said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had opposed the tie-up, calling it an “anti-national” alliance.
“Uddhav ji’s words have been proved correct today,” he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee said the PDP-BJP coalition was destined to break as it was an “unholy” alliance.
“This was an unholy alliance and it was expected to break from day one. They had betrayed the people of the state and supporters of the respective parties. They sought votes on opposing agendas,” PCC president G A Mir said.
He said the BJP was more responsible for the situation in the state than the PDP and the national party carried more weight in the coalition.
“The BJP had a big mandate at national level but they were policy-less when it came to Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
“The four-year-old BJP rule at the Centre and the three-year-old coalition of the BJP and PDP in J&K has been an utter failure. The BJP’s decision to pull out (of the coalition government in J&K) is a bid to save itself from the governance failures of the last three years,” alleged NCP national spokesman Nawab Malik.
Addressing reporters, he said the BJP cannot absolve itself from the prevailing situation in Kashmir. “The party is equally responsible for the conditions prevailing in the border state,” he said. (With PTI inputs)
