Irked over the somersault by the Congress on the issue of being part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), former chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has accused the Congress of going defensive following “false” propaganda unleashed by the BJP.

Mehbooba’s tweet came late night on Tuesday after the chief spokesman of Congress, Randeep Surjewala said the party is not a part of the PAGD that is an alliance of seven parties demanding restoration of the Article 370 that was abrogated by the Modi government in August last year. Surjewala had made the statement after the Home Minister Amit Shah targeted the Congress and asked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to make their stand clear on their support to the PAGD that “insults the India’s tricolor”.

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Upset over the statement of Surjewala, Mehbooba tweeted; “Today yet again through false propaganda, BJP has put Congress on defensive about its participatsion in PAGD. The pattern where BJP propagates falsehoods & sets the agenda thereby forcing Congress to toe the same line is why this country lacks a robust opposition”.

“Its a fact that abrogation of Article 370 was illegal & was a constitutional guarantee given to J&K. Yet no national party including Congress will admit it publicly due to the lies spread by BJP. We are living in times where demanding constitutional rights itself is deemed anti-national”, Mehbooba said in her tweet.

Mehbooba said; “BJP’s propaganda is peddled day & night by pliable channels that dedicate their prime time debates to issues such as ‘love jihad’, tukde tukde gang and now Gupkar alliance”. It is worth mentioning that the Congress had stayed away from meetings of the PAGD, but after a green signal from the Centre, the PCC chief GA Mir had last week met Dr. Farooq Abdullah and offered to contest the upcoming local bodies elections jointly with the alliance.

Reacting to Mehbooba’s tweets, spokesman of the Congress party in J&K, Ravinder Sharma said, ‘We do not share the entire agenda of PAGD and we have condemned every statement against sentiments of the nation. “BJP raises such hysteria during every election to mislead the electorate like it did in UP and Delhi, he added.