Mehbooba Mufti, in an interview, after the much talked about All Parties Meeting expressed that the central government has dissipated the middle ground by abrogating the special status of the Jammu Kashmir.
“They have dissimated the middle ground. The middle ground are people like us, who follow us, who believe in Indian constitution and the idea of India. They’ve expanded the constituency for people who did not believe in Indian constitution,” she said.
She said that the things are not the way the central government had expected them to be. And that the people of Jammu Kashmir are done, and it’s only people like them who want to be a part of the country.
On being asked how things were back in Jammu Kashmir, she responded, “Do you really think they would have called the Gupkar Gang if the things were so nice?”
When she was asked that the government has cited militancy related events having decreased in the last two years as an evidence that things were better, she confirmed that there’s an underlying disquiet in the valley.
“Killing militants maybe a successful operation by the security forces, but it is not the success of the government. It’s not a success on the situation, when you can contain a situation. You need to address it. Why are young boys picking up guns? And then 10-15 days getting killed,” Mehbooba Mufti said.
She also said that when a young boy picks up the gun, he’s a militant but when he’s buried, he becomes a Pakistani for others. So that’s something that has to be stopped, she said. And that people have to be reached out to, so they stop picking up guns. She also stated that the elections were necessary but some confidence building measures need to be taken.
“They’ve demoted Jammu Kashmir from special status to a UT. They have dismembered the state, demolished everything. They haven’t only demolished article 370, they’ve also demolished the trust of people of Jammu Kashmir,” she added.
On being asked that like the NC, if the statehood is restored, will she fight an election, she said that the Home Minister and the Prime Minister assured that they will restore statehood “at appropriate time.”
“If it was up to me, I’d demand that the article 370 and 35A be restored and then elections take place.
It’s not up to us. They’ll do what they have to do,” Mufti told in the interview.
And on the question of PDP fighting elections, she responded, “I’ve made it amply clear that I don’t want the restoration of 370 and 35 A or the statehood to be taken as my political slogan just for the heck of it so I’ve decided, I’m not going to fight any election until it is restored.”
“But as far as my party is concerned, we don’t want to leave any democratic space for others to jump in. For powers who can prove more detrimental to the interests of Jammu Kashmir. So whether it’s the UT or the State Elections, we’ll sit together and take a decision,” she concluded.
Further, when she was asked about the face of CM, incase the statehood wasn’t restored yet, and the PDP won the elections, Mufti responded that there were many young people capable of being the face for CM. And she also added that she’s not saying that she won’t fight the election until the special status is restored as a political slogan.
She was asked whether the Gupkar Alliance would fight the elections together, to which she responded that nothing of that sort had been decided yet. And that it was too early for such discussions.