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| “Stone Pelting Force”: Omar rightly snubs Mehbooba | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 24: PDP president and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Mehbooba Mufti has crossed all the lines to establish that she and her party could go to any extent to further their separatist and communal agenda. She has gone to extent of defending what she calls the “stone pelting force”, saying they have been forced to take to stone pelting against the paramilitary forces and other law and order enforcing authorities because the powers-that-be in the state and at the Centre have not done anything to reverse the process of “alienation” in Kashmir. Her spurious and provocative argument is that it is this negative attitude of the authorities that has forced the “alienated” youth and other Kashmiri people to give a new orientation to the ongoing struggle in Kashmir to achieve their ultimate goal.
The PDP president has turned so irrational and cold, it appears, that she has practically given a clean chit to the unruly “stone pelting force” that stoned to death even an eleven-month-old infant in Baramula the other day. She has described the infant’s death as the handiwork of the NC-Congress coalition government, which has “created (a) counter stone pelting force”. It is an irony that she has no sentiment to express to share the sorrow and grief of the deceased family.
Her defence while extending her unqualified support to the unruly elements in the Valley who have created a very serious law and order problem in Kashmir and made it extremely difficult for the security forces to maintain restraint: “Right from Bomai to Shopian, the government handled the situation in such a manner that alienation among the people (read a section of population in the Valley) and they have been left with no other option but to come on streets and resort to stone-pelting against the hawkish attitude of the government…This is not mere stone-pelting issue. Over 60 per cent people had participated in the elections and they have high expectations from the present dispensation. Instead, (the government is using bullet against the alienated “stone-pelting youth”.
Besides, she has asserted: “Unless and until they (those in the government) adopt pro-people policies or apply balm on the psyche of the youth the situation is not going to improve”. To be more precise, she has suggested the withdrawal of security forces from Kashmir and demanded a solution that drives J&K away from the national mainstream. Her party’s direct support to the “stone pelting force” needs to be viewed in this context and nothing else. Her party wants to sever the state’s all relations with New Delhi and there should be no doubt about what the PDP stands for. That’s the reason Mehbooba Mufti and similar other leaders are hailing, shielding, defending and giving moral and material support to the hooligans, who are not even sparing the infants.
It’s no wonder then that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has been facing trouble after trouble ever since he took over the reigns of government on January 5 last year, some of which are his own creations, has accused Mehbooba Mufti and her party of vitiating the security environment in the Kashmir Valley. He has accused, and for right reasons, that the PDP and certain other elements, including some from across the border, of funding the stone-pelting youth to create anarchy in the Valley. His charge against the PDP is as unambiguous as it should have been.
It is good that he has declared in clear terms that his government would deal firmly with the stone-pelting youth and similar other trouble-creators whose number ranges between seven and eight hundred. The bottom-line of his whole approach to the stone-pelting youth is that his government will not allow these handful unruly, motivated, indoctrinated and funded elements to hold one crore people of the state “hostage” and that his government has resolved to meet this menace in a determined manner, though coupled with “maximum possible restraint”. His stand on the issue is correct and he needs full support of all those who wish the people of Kashmir to live in a peaceful environment.
At the same time, however, the Chief Minister would do well to avoid making such statements as could be construed as manifestations of his belief in the game of one-upmanship. If he is to counter the PDP-style politics, he can do it only if he takes recourse to competitive secularism and democracy, as opposed to competitive communalism and separatism. This is the best way to neutralize the influence of the
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