The BJP on Sunday accused former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti of trying to recover her lost political base in Jammu and Kashmir by indulging in blame game and falsehood against the BJP.

Reacting to the political affairs committee (PAC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) accusing the BJP of “rigid approach” due to which Agenda of Alliance (AoA) of the PDP-BJP could not be implemented during the coalition regime, the state spokesman of BJP, Brigadier Anil Gupta (Retired), said that by issuing such statements the PDP was trying to recover its lost political base.

“Shaken by desertion of its senior leaders and rejection by its cadre, the ramshackle PDP is now trying to regain the lost ground through manufactured statements which are far from truth. Despite best efforts of BJP to coax Mehbooba to respect the spirit of the agenda of alliance which rested on ending regional discrimination, a holistic and balanced development, transparent and responsive government, she stuck to her agenda of blatant discrimination, Kashmiri hegemony, soft-separatism and ignored good governance,” alleged Gupta.

Inaccessibility of the administration and elected representatives, mass corruption, growing radicalisation alienated the Kashmiri youth from the PDP, Gupta claimed.

Rather than accepting the ground reality gracefully, PDP leadership in a desperate bid to keep its flock together is trying to take shelter of its “original core agenda including self-rule.” The reality is that people have rejected the party blaming it for their outright betrayal. South Kashmir considered to be the one-time bastion of the Muftis and PDP is proving to be a big minefield for the party and its leaders are finding it difficult to even visit their constituencies, said Gupta.

No amount of blame game will help PDP in the revival of its political fortunes. “The party should concentrate on setting its own house in order through deft and astute leadership rather than blaming BJP. There is a lot of difference between Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti. A fact being ignored by her and which appears to be the main cause of her party’s declining fortunes,” said Gupta.

He further added, “There are numerous blots on the political fibre of PDP which the people, youth in particular, are unwilling to forgive because of which the party has lost the support of the people across the Valley.”

As far as non-implementation of Agenda is concerned, Mehbooba has to blame herself only. Despite the agreement to keep contentious issues at bay, she was the first to politicise the hearing in the Supreme Court of a petition filed by an NGO on the legality of Article 35A. She went to the extent of threatening, “There will be no one to give shoulder to the Tri-Colour in Kashmir.” The brutal assault carried out by Jammu & Kashmir Police on patriotic students of NIT, Srinagar, for carrying the Tricolour in the campus was also ordered by Mehbooba, Gupta alleged.

He alleged that the then Vice President of PDP, Sartaj Madni, who is also the maternal uncle of Mehbooba, began a “sinister campaign” of holding the Agenda of Alliance as a hostage to the revival of Indo-Pak dialogue. While the BJP continued to insist that there are many issues in the Agenda beyond Indo-Pak relations that affect the lives of the people of the state living in miseries which need urgent resolution. However, there was no initiative taken for their resolution.

“In complete betrayal of the spirit of AoA, PDP continued to pursue its soft-separatist Valley-centric agenda ignoring the aspirations of the people of Jammu & Ladakh”, asserted Gupta.