Jammu: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said her party’s sole agenda is the restoration of peace and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue and development and unity of its regions.
The former chief minister criticised the National Conference (NC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for linking her proposal for granting divisional status to the Pir Panjal and the Chenab valley to the ‘Dixon Plan’ and said the demand was purely administrative and aimed at ensuring balanced development and better governance of “neglected” regions.
“The PDP has only one agenda: the restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir with dignity and respect. Dialogue should be held with each other as was demonstrated by (PDP founder) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during the AB Vajpayee era, when dialogue was pursued within J&K and also with Pakistan.
“During that period, cross-border roads such as the Poonch–Rawalakote and Uri–Muzaffarabad routes were also opened. We want the Army to go back to the barracks after improvement in the situation, two power projects should either be returned to J&K or adequate compensation be provided. This is our agenda—we want J&K to prosper, remain united, and for the government to reach out to the people,” Mufti told reporters here.
On NC president Farooq Abdullah linking her proposal for granting divisional status to Pir Panjal (Rajouri and Poonch) and Chenab valley (Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar) with the Dixon Plan, Mufti said she respects him and considers him the tallest leader in J&K, but “I think he had forgotten that his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was arrested for the same formula.”
“It could be the agenda of the National Conference and its founder, for which he was dismissed and jailed. This can never be our party’s agenda,” she said.
The Dixon Plan was a formula proposed in September 1950 by Sir Owen Dixon, a UN representative and former chief justice of Australia, aimed at resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
She said Pir Panjal is a backward area which is facing the major brunt of the hostilities between India and Pakistan on the borders, while Chenab valley is environmentally fragile and is facing frequent natural disasters and accidents.
“People should be empowered and democracy demands that the government reach the public. I have talked about the administration and not the Dixon Plan. My father spent his whole life to keep the whole J&K united and that was the reason for his forming the government with the BJP to respect the people’s mandate,” she said.
Mufti also lashed out at the BJP for linking the proposal to some hidden agenda of Pakistan and the Dixon Plan and said “they have already destroyed the erstwhile state of Maharaja by carving out Ladakh (in 2019) and also seeking separate statehood for Jammu”.
“We do not want to merge Pir Panjal and Chenab valley with Kashmir and instead want separate divisional status for the two regions for the benefit of the people. BJP started implementing the Dixon plan when they redrew the borders of south Kashmir’s Anantnag parliamentary constituency by including Poonch and Rajouri in it,” she said.
She also condemned the reported summoning of journalists to police stations in Srinagar and said, “I was expecting Abdullah to talk about this and also condemn it.”
Valley incomplete without Pandits, people awaiting their return: Mufti
Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits and people of the Valley are eagerly awaiting their return.
The former chief minister also suggested that reservation of two Assembly seats for Kashmiri Pandits would be preferable.
“Kashmiri Pandits must take their own decision. We are eagerly waiting for their return as the Valley is incomplete without them,” Mufti told reporters at PDP headquarters in Gandhi Nagar here.
She was responding to a question about Kashmiri Pandits, who completed 36 years in exile on January 19, holding protests in the last two days for their return and rehabilitation.
The PDP chief said she had recently met Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and conveyed to him that instead of nominating two members of the community to the Assembly, those seats should be reserved for them.
“Let them come, contest elections. They will seek votes and Muslims will vote for them. That is how communities will come together,” she said.
Mufti questioned the benefit of nominating someone sitting somewhere in Mumbai or some other place to the Assembly, saying such a move does not truly represent or benefit the community.
“They are our brothers, and we want them to return with dignity and live together with us so that Kashmir becomes complete,” she added.
