Modi-Mehbooba meet called off

Government formation in Jammu and Kashmir has run into rough weather as the scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti was “called off without any reason” in New Delhi on Friday.

Sources said demand for fresh guarantees on the “constitutional integrity” of J&K may have soured the relationship between the alliance partners.

The meeting with Mr. Modi was to be a follow-up to the “positive” meet of Ms. Mufti and BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi, which lasted an hour.

Earlier the Army had expressed willingness to relocate troops in the State, a key condition laid down by Ms. Mufti for government formation.
Sources said the spade work for the meetings was done by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav and PDP leader Haseeb Drabu, who is camping in New Delhi.

Speaking to the media in New Delhi, Mr. Madhav described the talks with the PDP “as fruitful as it was two months ago.”

“There can be no government on any fresh conditions. A government [in J&K] has to be in place to take up issues with the Centre for any progress. Unfortunately, sitting Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed died during the course of the ongoing coalition government. Nothing has changed otherwise,” said Mr. Madhav.

Reacting to Mr. Madhav’s remarks, PDP leader Nayeem Akhtar told The Hindu that the ‘Agenda of the Alliance’ is “a sacred document to the PDP.”

“There is a feeling that the Agenda is perhaps being treated just as a piece of paper or an arrangement of power-sharing. We want to dispel that notion [before forming the government],” said Mr. Akhtar.

Land to be handed over

In another development, at his meeting with Governor N.N. Vohra, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, expressed willingness to relocate troops from the areas identified by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed last year.

A Raj Bhavan spokesman said the Army would hand over 16.30 acres near the Jammu University, the 212-acre Tatoo Grounds in Srinagar, the 456.60-acre high grounds in Anantnag and lower land of Khurba Thang in Kargil to the civilian administration.

March 31 is the deadline for the handover.

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PDP, BJP alliance reaches make-or-break point

While the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday once again made its issues with coalition partner BJP public, including “trust deficit” and “poor headway on the joint agenda”, the outcome of the PDP’s legislative party meet on Monday will be a make-or-break point for the 10-month-old coalition in Jammu & Kashmir. All eyes are on PDP’s legislative party meeting, scheduled for 2.p.m where a final call on the government formation is likely.

If there is a consensus on the coalition, the meet may see the nomination of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, also an MP, as head of the legislative party, a prerequisite for taking over as Chief Minister of J&K, which has been under Governor’s rule since January 9 in the wake of the demise of the then sitting Chief Minister and PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

The PDP saw the first formal talk on government formation at Sunday’s meet of senior party leaders, including zonal and district-level leaders, where Ms. Mufti lamented the poor coordination from the BJP.

“Mufti sahib took a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with the BJP with the hope that the Central government headed by Narendra Modi will take decisive measures to address the core political and economic issues concerning J&K and its people,” Ms. Mufti told the meeting.

“Unfortunately, instead of partnering with and implementing Sayeed’s vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to J&K, certain quarters, both within J&K and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the State government’s energies in fire-fighting and propitiation,” she alleged.

Talks tough

Hardening her position, Ms. Mufti said in such “violative circumstances”, her party “has to reassess whether it can absorb the shocks that Mufti had to do frequently in his effort to forge reconciliation between the regions and the people of the State.”

She said the Government of India shall have to take substantive measures towards implementation of the PDP-BJP “Agenda of Alliance” in the interest of peace and stability in J&K and “for this the PDP needs a set timeframe to be worked out.” “The PDP will have to reassess whether the Centre is ready to trust the people of J&K and carry out the implementation with sincerity of purpose,” she said.

‘An attempt to test people’s patience’

Criticising the delay in government formation in Jammu and Kashmir by the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, the National Conference on Sunday termed it “contemptuous attempt to test the patience of the people and called the PDP’s alliance with the BJP “as Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s final and definitive political legacy.”

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Indian Muslims follow real Islam, says Mehbooba Mufti

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said Indian Muslims practiced real Islam because there was tolerance in Hinduism and lashed out at those who responded with calls of “go to Pakistan” every time there was an ideological disagreement.

She was speaking in the Lok Sabha during the discussion commemorating the Constitution and its architect, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

“To those who ask [Muslims] to go to Pakistan, I want to say that the nation owns us and we own the nation,” she said. The statement was made in reference to recent incidents where those protesting against what they perceived as rising intolerance in the country were asked to go to Pakistan by right-wing elements and in some cases, even by members of the ruling BJP.

She was, however, generous in her praise for the country’s pluralistic ethos compared to other countries like Pakistan and Syria, where she said, “Muslims are killed but no one can open their mouth.”

Ms. Mufti cited the incidents of scientists, authors, artistes and historians returning their awards in protest as the biggest proof of India’s tolerance. “Indian Muslims follow the real Islam. This is also because the Hindu majority [community] is very tolerant. Babasaheb must have taken tolerance from Hinduism. The way Hinduism has the tolerance, perhaps no one else has. The historians, authors and scientists have been protesting and returning their awards. The way they came out in protest keeps the nation alive,” she said in an impassioned speech.

Referring to the Dadri incident, where Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched over rumors of eating and storing beef, she said it reflected systemic failures and not the spirit of the people.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma also spoke during the discussion and demanded that the Constitution be amended to ensure that only a person elected to the Lok Sabha was eligible to be made the Prime Minister. “Only an elected member of the Lok Sabha should be allowed to be the Prime Minister,” he said.

He is the third person, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Biju Janata Dal MP Baijayant Panda, who have spoken of Constitutional reforms with regard to the powers of the Rajya Sabha.

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