Ask your men, Mufti hits back at BJP prez

‘BJP never raised Jammu development while in govt’

Former chief minister and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has reacted sharply to the claim of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that it was lack of development of Jammu and Ladakh regions of the State that compelled the saffron party to pull out of the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Allegations of discrimination against Jammu & Ladakh have no basis in reality,” she tweeted on Sunday. “Yes, the Valley has been in turmoil for a long time & the floods of 2014 were a setback, therefore needed focused attention. But that does not mean that there was any less development elsewhere,” Ms Mufti who headed the coalition government from 2015 till she resigned last week, said.

A day earlier, BJP president Amit Shah had said the party pulled out of the alliance with PDP as the Mufti-led government had failed to ensure equal and balanced development of Jammu and Ladakh regions of the State along with the Kashmir Valley. “The BJP is a party of patriots. Governments hold no meaning to it but development and the security of the country do. The PDP-led government failed to ensure equal and balanced development of all the three regions of the State. Jammu and Ladakh were discriminated against; so we decided to pull out of the government,” he had said while addressing a rally in Jammu.

Ms. Mufti said if anything the BJP should review was the performance of its own ministers, most of whom belonged to Jammu region. “None among them either at state or central level talked about it during the last 3 years,” she said, adding many other false charges have been levelled against her but sought to remind Mr. Shah that her party’s commitment to ‘Agenda of the Alliance.’