PDP hits back at NC over Article 370, cites ‘deals with BJP’ | India News

Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti

SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Peoples Democratic Party hit back Thursday at National Conference (NC) for blaming it over the abrogation of Article 370, accusing the latter of placing secret offers with BJP whereas defending PDP’s alliance with the saffron celebration as open and principled.
The row erupted after former RAW chief AS Dulat claimed in his e-book “The Chief Minister and the Spy” that NC president Farooq Abdullah secretly supported the revocation of Article 370 in 2019, though he publicly denounced it as a betrayal.
J&Okay CM Omar Abdullah questioned PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s endorsement of Dulat’s forthcoming e-book, asking if she additionally accepts what the spymaster wrote about her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in an earlier work.
In his 2015 e-book “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years”, Dulat wrote that Sayeed liked his whisky and was as soon as nicknamed “Mufti Whisky”. The RAW ex-chief described Sayeed as a daily bridge participant at Delhi Golf Club and recounted how he would at all times insist on “one small” extra, even after a drink.
“If Mehbooba Mufti believes everything Dulat writes is true, then should we also consider what he wrote about her father in his first book as true?” Omar stated in Jammu. He accused Dulat of distorting information to spice up e-book gross sales. “When we have friends like this, then we don’t need any enemies,” he stated.
NC reiterated its stand that the PDP-BJP alliance laid the groundwork for the constitutional change in J&Okay. The coalition govt was shaped on March 1, 2015, and BJP ended the alliance on June 19, 2018.
“Whatever has happened in J&K since 2019 is because of the PDP-BJP alliance,” NC spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq stated, doubling down on the celebration’s narrative that has dominated its election campaigns since 2019.
Mehbooba countered that her celebration’s alliance with BJP was clear and aimed at safeguarding Article 370. “Unlike NC’s history of betrayal and secret deals with Delhi since 1947, our alliance was open and based on a promise that Article 370 will be protected,” she stated.
Dulat’s revelations underpin suspicions in J&Okay’s political circles over Abdullah, his son Omar, and NC MP Hasnain Masoodi assembly PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi days earlier than the abrogation.
Mehbooba stated Omar had approached Union residence minister Amit Shah after the 2014 meeting elections to suggest an NC-BJP alliance. “Many BJP politicians told us NC was ready to ally without any agenda while we were negotiating a formal agenda,” she stated. “But my father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed insisted on a written agenda that preserved Article 370.”
The PDP-BJP agenda of alliance included a six-year freeze on Article 370 and a dedication to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat” doctrine.
PDP’s Waheed Para backed the celebration’s chief, saying: “Ours was an alliance to bring India and Pakistan closer to save lives in J&K, while NC entered into deals with BJP.”