Irked by Congress stitching an alliance with National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir for formation of a coalition government, PDP severed its ties with the UPA at the Centre.
SRINAGAR: Irked by Congress stitching an alliance with National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir for formation of a coalition government, People's Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday, severed its ties with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre.
"PDP has formally dissociated itself from the UPA alliance at the Centre," party president Mehbooba Mufti said in a letter to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Mufti is the lone member of her party in the Lok Sabha.
"In view of your new arrangement with the National Conference, both in the state and in the UPA, you would appreciate our difficulty in continuing to be a part of the UPA.
"My party has decided to stay away from the arrangement as it has become now untenable for PDP to continue in this alliance," Mehbooba said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the press in Srinagar.
Mehbooba did not questioned the right of Congress to choose its allies but said, "As you have exercised your unquestionable right to choose a partner for government formation in J&K, we wish the new government well. I sincerely hope the new government in the state is able to respond to the highly complex situation with success."
While conveying her party decision, Mehbooba expressed her gratitude to Gandhi for the "personal affection" that she always showered on her. She also lauded Gandhi for "the consideration that you and your government showed to our point of view and the historic contribution you made to Kashmir's fortunes in 2002".
Recalling the PDP-Congress coalition, Mehbooba said six years back her party had started a journey together against the backdrop of blood, mayhem, repression and despondency in the border state.
"Today, there is enough indication on ground to feel satisfied that the alliance turned out to be an enterprise of hope for the people of Jammu and Kashmir that you and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, former chief minister, had intended it to be," she said.
Mehbooba said Gandhi's statesmanship contributed in a substantial measure to the turnaround in the situation. And for the first time in J&K's history, the PDP-Congress coalition worked as a remarkable facilitator of reconciliation between political aspirations of the state, its developmental needs and the national interest, she said.
The PDP chief said the measures of significance initiated by the PDP-Congress coalition government led to an entirely new realisation of peace as the only way forward in South Asia.
During the stewardship of Mufti at the state level, an unprecedented national consensus was attained on Kashmir and the need for opening up to Pakistan as also reaching out to the people of J&K for its final settlement was vehemently articulated by the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his successor Manmohan Singh, she said.
She said the peace and reconciliation process made the mainstream Kashmiri politics to gain a new status and prestige as a factor for resolution and the ground situation in the state started transforming positively. "My father and my party feel we have done a duty towards our state, which could not have been achieved without the support of your party and the government," she told Gandhi.
Terming the fall of the PDP-Congress coalition in the state in the wake of Amarnath land row as "unfortunate", Mehbooba said even after the fall of the coalition government, "we continued to be with UPA and extended our full support to your government at the Centre in whatever circumstances."
"We had gone into the recent elections with our agenda for dialogue, self-rule, reduction of troops and scrapping of special powers in view of the vastly improved ground situation in the state," Mehbooba said.
"The emphatic rejection of violence by the people of the state as a means of solving problems and reiteration of their faith in democratic means became very clear during the elections," she said.
"We have been raising the vital issues concerning the state and its people for quite some time in the interest of peace and stability. We, as a responsible opposition, will continue to flag the issues that we feel people have mandated us for," she added.
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