Srinagar, Mar 11: Opposition National Conference on Sunday said PDP’s “declaration” that Kashmir was “not a political issue but a social issue” was a shocking and shameful U-turn by the party which has for years sought support and votes primarily to help in the resolution of the political issue.
Addressing a press conference at party headquarters here on Sunday, NC general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, who was flanked by provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani and state spokesperson Junaid Mattu, lashed out at the Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her party for their “total sell-out”.
Referring to the Finance Minister Dr. Haseeb A. Darbu’s “outrageous statement” as the “the last nail in the PDP’s coffin”, Sagar said the declaration that Kashmir was apparently not a ‘political issue’ but a ‘social issue’ was a serious development that called into question the very basis of PDP’s politics over the years, and the promises it had been making to the people of the State.
“If PDP thinks that Kashmir is not a ‘political issue’ but is according to them a ‘social issue’, then it brings question mark to dangle over the very basis of the politics of PDP and that of its founder Late Mufti Sahab,” Sagar said.
“Till today we were led to believe that PDP’s basis was the resolution of the political issue and its rhetorical advocacy for dialogue was a cornerstone of its narrative,” he said.
“Today, the same party suddenly declares that Kashmir is not a political issue and the problems we are facing are not any different from those being faced by people outside Kashmir. We condemn this statement in the strongest of terms as it reeks of fallacy, delusion and indicates an enormous ideological U-turn for the party,” Sagar said.
He asked Mehbooba Mufti to clarify if this was the final and formal abandonment of the party’s ‘Self Rule’ document, which till now was being portrayed as the party’s supreme vision document.
“First the PDP violated the mandate of 2014 by entering into an opportunistic alliance with a party it had sought votes against, and today the same party finally lets the cat out of the bag by declaring everything it stood for till now was apparently akin to ‘barking up the wrong tree’ as has been said by Dr. Haseeb Drabu,” Sagar said.
“We want to ask the Chief Minister and the PDP president if Kashmir is not a political issue, then why have thousands of people lost their lives and why does the state continue to be mired by instability, violence and lack of peace and normalcy?
“Why did you promise the people that your party would work towards helping in resolving the political issue when you don’t even consider the issue to be political to start with?” NC asked.
Speaking on the occasion, Wani hit out at the PDP for “fooling” the people of the State for almost two decades by seeking their “personal political empowerment by exploiting the political sentiment that they are now openly ridiculing. “
