‘PAGD leaders continue with provocative remarks’
The BJP has said that it is not only Mehbooba Mufti, but both Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah who have, in the recent past, continued their “provocative and anti-national narrative” in Jammu and Kashmir amid the DDC elections.
In the current campaign of the DDC elections, more than a dozen Union ministers and senior leaders of BJP have visited Jammu and Kashmir and some of them, including Shahnawaz Hussain, are camping here in the valley for these local elections.
This high-stake election between BJP and PAGD, though for the local bodies, has assumed dangerous proportions as both have been accusing each other with remarks hitting below the belt.
In a statement released on International Human Rights Day, PAGD president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that there has been a “steep rise in the infringement of fundamental and human rights in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. Abdullah, who is the Member of Parliament from Srinagar, called the decision taken by the parliament on 5 August 2019 as “unilateral” and “unconstitutional”. “The honour of the people has been downgraded on every account since the spiteful measures of 5 August 2019 were undertaken by
key celebration, Pawar’s 80th birthday saw half page advertisements in the national dailies felicitating his political journey. Interestingly, in the essay that accompanies the greetings, Praful Patel recounts the many times Pawar nearly became Prime Minister, beginning with 1991, when Narasimha Rao was propped up over Pawar’s candidature; and later in 1996, when the Congress won 145 MPS, the
United Front leaders such as Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav had agreed to support a
Congress government under Pawar’s prime ministership, but Narasimha Rao “didn’t flinch”. Later, when the Gowda government was brought down by Sitaram Kesri, this plan was revived again but didn’t get Kesri’s backing. Praful Patel also talks about how later when Sharad Pawar was the Congress parliamentary party leader his decisions were overrun by P.J. Kurien at the promptings of Sonia Gandhi. And so on. It’s interesting that this narrative has come to light at a time when the Congress is looking for a credible leadership to replace Sonia Gandhi and is also, for the first time, questioning the hold of the dynasty. In fact, the timing of Pranab Mukherjee’s memoirs, where he rues the fact that he was kept from becoming Prime the Centre by giving a ditch to all established constitutional norms and parliamentary propriety,” Farooq Abdullah’ statement said.
According to the BJP, PAGD vice president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been “issuing provocative statements” only to please China and Pakistan.
Most BJP leaders and central ministers have been calling the PAGD leadership “a bunch of opportunists” who are in cohorts with the forces inimical to national security, subtly saying that they were working at the behest of Pakistan. Apart from labelling them as anti-nationals, they have started a campaign calling them corrupt and inefficient.
Minister by the Gandhi family is also interesting. Will the Congress look to the past to make decisions about the future?