Minister sacked for ‘ J&K not political issue’ remark
Jammu and Kashmir.
“It (J&K) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it… that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself,” Drabu was quoted as saying in some media reports.
The sacking of Drabu, an eminent economist and the main architect of the BJP-PDP alliance and its agenda of governance, came a day after the Peo- ple’s Democratic Party asked him to retract what was “detrimental to the party’s interests”.
Drabu earlier wrote on a Facebook post that he was quoted out of context and that his speech was carried “in bits and pieces”.
Opposition parties and separatist leaders targeted the Mehbooba Mufti government for Drabu’s remarks saying the comments were a “proof of surrender”, “misleading and distortion of history” that amounted to the PDP’S sellout of its self-rule demand “to remain in power”.
“If Kashmir is not a political problem, then why is interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma here and why India and Pakistan fought four wars since 1947,” said senior National Conference (NC) leader Ali Mohammed Sagar.
The PDP has always termed Kashmir as a political issue.
The BJP leader cited before praised Drabu’s role in coordinating between the two parties and said he was often the bridge between the state government and the Centre over a host of issues. He also recalled that Drabu played an important role in the formulation of the GST.
Drabu was the PDP’S pointsman who worked out the draft of the agenda of alliance with the BJP that brought the two ideologically different parties to power after the 2014 elections produced a hung assembly.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said Drabu’s speech in New Delhi has cost him “dearly”. “Will be interesting to see who replaces him in the finance ministry,” the National Conference working president said.
He later said in a tweet, ““Simply sacking the architect of the BJP-PDP alliance and co-author of the agenda of alliance will not redeem the PDP for the sins of the last three years.”