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| ‘Insecure’ Govt desperate to hide failures: Mehbooba | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Srinagar May 30 (KNS): Peoples Democratic Party president, Mehbooba Mufti, Monday said the coalition government was trying to draw an iron curtain around the state to cover up its governance mess and human rights ‘fraud.’
“While the people within the state were struggling to cope up with the draconian methods of the government it chose to send signals of intolerance and arrogance across the world by expelling prominent public figures for the first time in recent history,” she told a meeting of party workers in Mirgund Pattan near here today.
Newly elected panchs and sarpanchs of Pattan Assembly constituency also attended the meeting which was addressed among others by senior leader Moulvi Iftikhar Hussein Ansari.
Mehbooba alleged democracy in the state had been a victim of National Conference’s dictatorial methods from day one and its revival was not possible without providing a limitless liberty to democracy and its institutions. “More democracy and not less is required in the state to move forward on resolution and development fronts,” she stressed.
“But unfortunately by following its own petty agenda the NC was once again trying to scuttle processes and traditions associated with democratic temper,” she regretted and said by denying liberty to prominent human rights activist and columnist Gautam Naulakha to enter the state the government had sent a shrill message across.
Mehbooba said till now it has been a routine fact of life to be imprisoned or detained in Kashmir without a charge or judicial process ‘but now the coalition has added another chapter to it story of intolerance by doing what no government thought necessary for decades.’
She said the ‘extreme’ step indicates a serious sense of ‘insecurity’ that the present government suffers from and it has raised questions not just about the state government but the democratic credential of the country as a whole. “The country’s democratic system is paying a huge price for the ineptitude of a state government that violates all laws with impunity be it some citizen’s liberty to move, or right to life,” she said.
Referring to the remarks of union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah threatening action against celebrated author Arundhati Roy if she came to Kashmir, Mehbooba said the streak of intolerance runs through the entire NC leadership. “I had vainly hoped him to advise tolerance to his son but Farooq sahib has gone a step ahead by damning the writer and books that expose his party’s misdeeds in Kashmir,” she said and promised a full blooded struggle from her party cadres against gagging voices in and about Kashmir.
She said the state was nobody’s personal property and the days of NC’s unquestioned methods were over as people had become conscious of their rights and had found an alternative in PDP that ‘would never compromise on their dignity and rights.’
Referring to the Panchayat elections Mehbooba said people had stunned the ruling party even in areas which they considered still as its stronghold by convincingly defeating anyone associated with the party. “This has not only expanded the political space for PDP and its agenda but had actually deprived NC of any moral substance if it ever had. The NC will henceforth just try to survive on borrowed lifelines,” she said terming the grass roots approval of her party as a turning point in the political equations of the state.
Addressing the meeting Maulvi Iftikhar said the elections to the village institutions had thrown up a well informed and most young local leadership across the state. This, he said, must serve a serious note of caution to power brokers who have sold out Kashmir’s interests time and again. He said the PDP will try to channelise the youth power along constructive lines and try to help it harness itself for the betterment of the state and work for a bright future.
The Maulvi said the vastly expanded political space will be utilized by the party to focus of developmental issues and force the government to discharge its duties towards them. The youth, he said, need to be proactive both on political and development fronts and promised that the PDP will make it happen for them. |
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