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| `Waning political will could spoil peace process' | | Delhi must change its glacial mindset: Mehbooba | |
Jammu, June 13 – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President, Mehbooba Mufti has asked the Centre to change its glacial mindset towards Jammu & Kashmir and do not try to push the issue under the carpet.
Addressing a series of public meetings in Haveli and Surankote constituencies of the border district Poonch today, Mehbooba said instead of being complacent in the new scenario, New Delhi must grab the opportunity and relax certain controls over Jammu & Kashmir to impact the ground situation. "This essentially includes reassessing the role of the armed forces in the internal security and revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)," she said and added such measures are the fundamental input to accelerate and consolidate the peace process in the prevailing atmosphere.
Mehbooba said beginning October 2002 assembly elections, a consistent effort was on at various levels to strengthen the State's democratic institutions by reinforcing people's confidence and trust in them. "These measures had facilitated emergence of a quite new, refreshing and promising situation for peace and stability in the State," she said and added that the alienation levels of the general public had perceptibly gone down between 2002 and 2005, and the overall atmosphere was reassuring and reconciliatory.
Expressing dismay over the waning political will in carrying forward the pro-people initiatives, Mehbooba pointed out that the situation seems to be fast slipping back with resurgent alienation replacing the public mood for reconciliation. "The political leadership of the country must respond to this worrying situation with urgent and courageous remedial measures," she said and cautioned that any delay would only complicate the matters.
Elaborating on the concerns of the people, Mehbooba said a sense of insecurity has again crept among the masses especially in the rural and far-flung areas and political activists and workers are, reportedly, being coerced, through overt and covert means, to fall in line. She said while the free and fair elections of October 2002 had become a threshold for normalization of the situation through public participation, any effort to reverse this trend would be a great blow to the people's faith in the democratic institutions. "We are yet to fully recover from the disastrous fall-out of the 1987 electoral farce," she said and warned that any repetition of such coercive practices would have the obvious perilous consequences.
Mehbooba said the biggest tragedy for the ill-fated people of Jammu & Kashmir today is that various elements, ironically, some of them even within various establishments, have developed a vested interest in the violence and they are utilizing all means to sabotage the peace process. "A strong political will in Islamabad and New Delhi would be the only befitting rebuff to such elements," she said and added that it would be in the interest of both the State and the country.
Referring to the local issues, Mehbooba said despite assurances by the Government, work on the Mughal Road project is yet to gather momentum and almost one month has passed since the project was cleared by the Apex Court. "The Government must set a deadline for the construction of the road so that nobody gets a chance to sabotage this prestigious project," she said.
Mehbooba also called for speeding up other development projects in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, that, she said have remained grossly neglected in the past. She said the people of these areas have now got conscious of their rights and they should get their due share in the development.
PDP leaders Murtaza Khan, Rafiq Hussain Khan, Basharat Bukhari, Dhaman Bhasin and Peerzada Mansoor Hussain also addressed these meetings.
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