National Conference: PDP buried agenda of 'self-rule' to grab power in Jammu & Kashmir

Opposition National Conference on Monday accused PDP of burying its real agenda of 'self-rule' to grab power and said the coalition government's 'Agenda of Alliance' serves the interest of the party more than the interest of the people of the state.

"Their (PDP) real agenda is self rule and they have buried it to grab the power," senior NC leader and former finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather told reporters in Jammu.

Alleging that PDP's main agenda was to get more ministries for them in the state, Rather said "this document (Agenda of Alliance) serves the interest of PDP more than it serves the interest of the people of the state, as Mufti Mohammed Sayeed got more cabinet ministries which was his real aspiration".

Attacking Sayeed on his claims that PDP had demanded the BJP to shun its demand of revocation of Article 370 before forging the alliance, the NC leader said "BJP never raised it. There was no such agenda; even during the Assembly polls BJP never raised the demand. Even replying to a question in Parliament a BJP minister had said there was no proposal with the government to abrogate Article 370." He said Indian Constitution itself states that Article 370 can neither be amended nor abrogated.

"The Constitution of India provides guarantee to Article 370 as it states the Article can only be amended or revoked by the President of the country that too on the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State."

Rather also slammed Sayeed over revocation of the AFSPA from the state, saying Mufti used to say that if voted to power he would get AFSPA revoked within a year. Now, he is singing the tunes of the central government by saying that peace is more important than revocation of AFSPA.

"After entering into an alliance, they now say that the government will examine the need for de-notifying disturbed areas act (DAA)."

Speaking on the issue of refugees from West Pakistan, the NC leader said, his party's approach was according to the Constitution of the State, that refugees from West Pakistan cannot be given citizenship rights. "Giving them citizenship rights was against the Constitution of the State and the Constitution of the country." He said while the PDP-BJP government has said it would take measures for sustenance and livelihood of West Pakistan refugees, the National Conference government had already send a proposal to the Union government on this issue.

"In our recommendations to the Union government, we had asked for more benefits for the refugees, our recommendations were just short of just granting citizenship rights," he said.

Rather said the Government of India had in 2002 passed a resolution in which the next delimitation commission in the country would be formed in 2026 and the then National Conference government in the state followed the suit.

"We followed the suit and put a freeze on the delimitation of the Assembly seats in the state till 2026, the same was challenged in High court and then Supreme Court but the ruling came in favour of the state government and now they say they would constitute a delimitation commission," he said.

On the issue of Coal block allocation, he said the Government of India has already allocated a coal block in Orissa to Jammu and Kashmir and there was nothing new in this. Rather also attacked PDP-BJP alliance on the compensation to be given to those people whose land was being used by the security forces and said "now, they say that they would make sure that the people whose land security forces cannot vacate get rent or compensation, but they were already being compensated."  He also alleged that PDP has made a sellout on its demand of taking back the power projects from the central government.

"They (PDP) used to say that they would form an alliance only after getting assurances that the state would get all the power projects back, but now their agenda shows that they would form some Chenab Valley Power Corporations, which means they would be handing over the power projects which are already with the state," he said.

Meanwhile NC MLA from Nagrota and party's provincial president Davendra Singh Rana also termed the alliance between PDP and BJP as an alliance of convenience.

"They (PDP-BJP) say that this alliance was an alliance of conviction, but it is an alliance of convenience," he said.

Reacting to Sayeed thanking Hurriyat, militant outfits and "people from across the border", an oblique reference to Pakistan, for the peaceful polls in the state, Rana said "the credit should go to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who despite threats to their lives came out to vote in large numbers." He said that BJP and PDP must ratify their stand.