Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram demanded that Jammu-Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti end the “unholy” alliance of her party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Chidambaram took to Twitter on Tuesday, 8 May, to put forth his view on the alliance, which he said was at the core of all the unrest in the state.
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram, who also served as the Union home minister from November 2008 to July 2012, not only urged the CM to quit the alliance but also blamed the Centre for the current volatile situation of the state.
He said that he shared Mufti’s view that statesmanship can end the “vicious cycle of killings” but claimed that it was the J-K Cm who is failing to see the real problem.
“Share J&K CM’s concern that statesmanship required to get J&K out of the vicious cycle of killings. Sad that she does not see that her coalition government is the core of the problem,” he wrote.
He demanded that Mehbooba Mufti should “break her party’s unholy and opportunistic coalition with the BJP and go back to the philosophy of her father”, referring to former CM, the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
“The central government’s muscular, militaristic approach to the J&K issue has driven the State towards the present catastrophic situation,” Chidambaram accused the NDA government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mehbooba Mufti should break her party’s unholy and opportunistic coalition with the BJP and go back to the philosophy of her father.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) May 8, 2018
“The PDP-BJP coalition is the gravest provocation to the people of the Kashmir valley,” he wrote, urging, “Mehboobaji, quit the coalition immediately and go back to the people.”
The central government’s muscular, militaristic approach to the J&K issue has driven the State towards the present catastrophic situation.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) May 8, 2018
The PDP-BJP coalition is the gravest provocation to the people of the Kashmir valley. Mehboobaji, quit the coalition immediately and go back to the people.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) May 8, 2018
Chidambaram’s comments came a day after Mufti urged the Centre to get the state out of the “vicious cycle of killings” following the death of a 22-year-old tourist from Chennai, who was hit on his way to Gulmarg, during a heavy stone pelting incident in Srinagar.
She said civil society across the country has a major role to play in finding a solution to the difficulties people in the state are facing.
On Sunday, spiralling violence in the state left five terrorists, including an assistant professor, and five civilians dead.
She has also in the recent past appealed for dialogue between India and Pakistan to bring an end to increasing tide of violence in her state.