Jammu, February 01, (Scoop News)-After hammering out the discord on various contentious issues and arriving at some points of convergence, the agenda for an alliance is clinched between the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as they are inching forward to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir within a fortnight, party insiders revealed to Scoop News.
The party insiders further suggested that Prime Minister Narinder Modi and PDP patron Mufti Mohmamed Sayeed will be meeting sometime after February 13 and the coalition is likely to embark upon the seat of power in the Himalayan region after the governors meet on February 11 and 12 in the Union Capital and Mufti’s meet with PM thereafter.
“It could be sometime around Shivratri”, they indicated.
The agenda, according to well placed party insiders, was sorted out in over a dozen of interactive sessions held between two sides for about a month in Delhi, Mumbai and Jammu, includes resumption of talks with Kashmiri separatists, talks with Islamabad over Pakistan occupied Kashmir, gradual removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from selected area of Jammu and Kashmir.
The major players in these talks included Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley,Ram Madhav and Haseeb Drabu.
BJP has pointed out that it was open to deliberate on removal of AFSPA in a phased manner starting from those areas that have not witnessed violent incidents for a long time now. PDP has suggested that a start could be made from the areas considered to be BJP bastions. As a first step, the new alliance government will recommend removing of certain areas in Jammu region from the list of “disturbed areas”.
Incidentally, several political and religious groups have warned BJP against compromising on the major issues for the sake of power.
The party insiders hinted at facing tremendous pressure within and from various other social and political groups against abandoning core issues like citizenship rights to West Pakistan refugees and constitution of delimitation commission to eliminate political discrimination against Jammu region.
Interestingly, senior PDP leader, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, has said in a statement on Saturday that settlement of West Pakistan Refugees is a humanitarian issue and a middle path must be found to give these people a hope.
The two sides also agreed to have substantial development package for the state.
PDP’s dream of fiscal autonomy and part of their election manifesto, the key issue highlighted by them was the demand for transfer of power projects run by NHPC to the state. This, according to the party insiders, will bring enormous goodwill for the Central Government particularly in Kashmir valley. The assets could be transferred to the state at book value, they said.
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