Mufti was asked to form govt or make way for PDP rebels: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar:  Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, said on Tuesday that the present incumbent Mehbooba Mufti owes an answer to the people of the State what prompted her to form a government with BJP after weeks of denial.

“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have a right to know what PDP got from New Delhi that prompted it to form government in alliance with BJP after three months bargaining and theatrical posturing,” he said.

Abdullah who attended Mufti’s swearing in Jammu on Monday said, “Mehbooba Mufti needs to come clean on her meeting with the Prime Minister and what transpired between the two over the so-called confidence building measures that PDP alleged to have sought from the Central government but a request the BJP denies having received at all”.

The former Chief Minister who is also working president of opposition National Conference (NC) while addressing workers rally at Kalakote in frontier district of Rajouri also reiterated that Mufti will have to explain to the people what PDP got from the Centre or the Prime Minister after three-month dilly dallying in forming the government.

“She needs to respond to the statement of BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav also who is on record having stated that Mehbooba Mufti didn’t ask for anything from the Prime Minister except his blessings”, he said.

Abdullah claimed that Mufti was, in fact, asked either to form the government or else leave the turf, as BJP was determined to form the government with 20 PDP MLAs who were ready to choose another leader for the PDP legislature party. “This caused panic in the Mufti camp, which fearing dismemberment of PDP chose to form the government out of fear and based on a deep sense of insecurity”, he said,

The former Chief Minister said those working under duress or fear cannot serve the people, nor can they protect their political interests. “A Chief Minister perpetually suspicious of her colleagues and apprehensive about a coup within the party cannot do justice with the institution of the Chief Minister’s Office”, he said. 

Abdullah described the ten-month rule of the PDP-BJP alliance as a complete and total failure on all fronts, saying this was even publicly admitted by Ms. Mufti when she expressed dismay over the implementation of the ‘Agenda of the Alliance’. 

He appreciated the ‘honest admission’ of Mufti and said had the first spell of the present coalition succeeded in achieving a single noteworthy milestone on governance or developmental fronts, he would have been the first one to congratulate them.

“The previous PDP-BJP government failed to take up a single new project for implementation and even those projects that were initiated during National Conference-Congress led government were put to back burner,” he said and made a reference to Kishtwar power project, which had been conceived with the larger aim of steering Jammu and Kashmir to self-reliance in power sector and said due to lack of vision of the PDP-BJP coalition the executing agency was forced to pack up and leave.

Elaborating on the alleged failure issue, he said from villages to towns and towns to cities and the State as a whole didn’t witness any sort of development. He said the people were subjected to misgovernance and their miseries continued to get accumulated without anyone paying heed. On the contrary, he asserted, the three months of Governor’s rule witnessed wheels of the government moving.

“Not only the held up decisions were taken and implemented, the Governor took effective measures in disbursing flood relief, dismissing absentee doctors, regularising daily wagers and streamlining various services, among other things,” he said.