Mufti Mohammad Sayeed stands during the guard of honour at the secretariat in Jammu on Monday. (PTI)
Srinagar, March 2: The PDP today made the position of partner BJP more untenable as it termed the Afzal Guru hanging a travesty of justice, a day after Mufti Mohammed Sayeed thanked Pakistan and militant outfits for allowing "smooth conduct" of last year's Jammu and Kashmir elections.
The PDP stirred its second row on its second day in office when eight of its MLAs put out a statement seeking the return of the mortal remains of Afzal Guru, who was hanged in February 2013 for his role in the 2001 Parliament attacks and buried in Tihar jail.
The BJP had supported the decision of the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to execute Afzal Guru.
The PDP statement read: "PDP has always maintained that late Afzal Guru's hanging was travesty of justice and constitutional requirements and process was not followed in hanging him out of turn.
"We believe that the resolution brought by Er. Rashid to seek clemency for late Afzal Guru was justified and should have been adopted by the House at that time."
Rashid, a former separatist-turned-Independent MLA, was the architect of "Save Afzal Guru resolution" admitted in the Assembly in 2011. But the resolution could not be taken up because of ruckus over an unrelated issue.
Sources said the apparent reason for the statement was to lure Rashid's vote for party candidates in today's legislative council elections. The PDP had hoped to win both seats from Kashmir with his vote. He voted for them but the PDP won one seat and lost the other to the National Conference.
Yesterday, Mufti had sparked a row by claiming that he had told the Prime Minister the credit for ensuring peaceful Assembly polls went to the Hurriyat, Pakistan and militant outfits.
"It would not have been possible to have smooth conduct of the elections if God forbid they (militants) had done something.... People from across the border made the atmosphere conducive and also allowed the democratic process to continue in the state. This gives us a hope," he had said.
The remarks gave the Congress a chance to target the BJP in Parliament today. But home minister Rajnath Singh unambiguously dissociated both his government and party from Mufti's comment.
"I want to give credit for this to the Election Commission, armed forces and paramilitary forces.... I congratulate the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the smooth conduct of polls," Rajnath said.
In Jammu, however, Mufti stood by what he had said. He accused the media for trying to make a "mountain of a mole hill" and ignoring the "positives" in his statement.
"(All I said is) Jammu and Kashmir enjoys a democratic right under the Indian Constitution, democratic institutions have a power and voter slip has a power.... Therefore, they (Pakistan and militants) recognised this institution of democracy," he said.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti came to her father's defence. She said there had been less violence during the Assembly polls compared to the Lok Sabha elections, which was to the credit of Pakistan and militants.
These are not the only issues bothering the new government. The PDP has given the BJP four cabinet berths and allotted one to Sajjad Lone of the People's Conference, which has a tie-up with the BJP. But it has retained 10 berths for its own ministers, which has riled the BJP, sources said.
The growing tension in the alliance prompted a tweet from former chief minister Omar Abdullah: "Has Mufti decided the Modi-Mufti accord was a mistake? Are the Father-Daughter duo trying to force BJP to break off the alliance? #wondering."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
from Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/18GAHfo
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment