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| DyCM contradicts CM | | Unilateral ceasefire | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 11: As if what J&K BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi on Thursday
said to reject Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's unilateral ceasefire suggestion was not enough to puncture the ceasefire balloon and tell the PDP that it was not the sole facyor in the government, senior BJP leader and the newly-appointed Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta went several steps further to tell all the concerned that the BJP had nothing to do with the ceasefire suggestion and that the ceasefire couldn't be a one-way traffic. Ceasefire is never a one-sided affair, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
The Deputy Chief Minister opposed the ceasefire suggestion last evening, thus indicating that the BJP high command had not appreciated the announcement made by the Chief Minister. It also became clear when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Lucknow on Thursday that he was not kept in the loop and that he would talk to the Chief Minister after he returned to New Delhi. Union Home Minister, in fact, feigned ignorance about the whole issue.
Explaining the party's stand on the ceasefire suggestion, the Deputy Chief Minister Gupta further said: "If there is an appeal from their (militants') side, only then we can think of it…Let them first make an appeal for it…It cannot be accepted that we announce a ceasefire, despite their (militants) continuous attacks on our security forces".
"They (militants) will have to take the initiative", he further reportedly said, and added that "we (BJP) want the ceasefire to last forever, not just the month of Ramzan".
The Deputy Chief Minister also rejected the claim that there was consensus at the all-party meet held on Wednesday at Srinagar as far as the suggestion of unilateral ceasefire was concerned. He said only "some participants had suggested a ceasefire during the all-party meeting on Wednesday, but there was no consensus".
Talking to reporters after the 4-hour-long meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had said: "The consensus of all was that we should appeal to the Government of India to consider…the unilateral ceasefire…The way (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee did a unilateral ceasefire in 2000…"
Very interestingly, the Deputy Chief Minister had on Wednesday said that "his party's stand was what the chief minister said".
Now that the Deputy Chief Minister has rejected the ceasefire suggestion and the claim that there was consensus on the issue, it can only be said that the gulf between the two coalition partners has further widened. It is only natural that all anti-PDP forces have joined hands to tear into the ruling PDP and taunt it quoting what the Deputy Chief Minister and BJP spokesperson said. NC leader Omar Abdullah and many others in the Valley have trained guns at the PDP and said that the PDP could go to any extent to retain control over the state power. |
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