Anantnag (J&K),August 30 ( Vijay Kumar) – Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday said the strength of Self Rule was in its pragmatism and focus on the real issues that have plagued the life of common man in the state for decades. “From human dignity to their sense of siege, political disempowerment and economic deprivation the PDP roadmap could address all aspects of life of the people”, he said.
Addressing party workers at Anantnag today Mufti said the complex nature of the problems of Jammu and Kashmir can be addressed only through a composite approach and the Self Rule vision provides a workable framework for that.
Mufti said the state had suffered a great deal through unfair treatment by others and confused and often self defeating
response by local leadership leading us into a state of perpetual conflict that has eaten up generations. We hurtled from political uncertainty to militancy but issues that faced us as a people got complicated rather than nearing any solution, he said and added successive generations have had to pay a heavy price for this continued disturbance. “This he said could come to an end if the various components of Self Rule are implemented” he said.
Referring to the resolution brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Assembly demanding renegotiation of terms with NHPC on the state’s water resources, Sayeed pointed out how the National Confrence(NC) had defeated these proposals for fear of annoying New Delhi. He said raising the just and genuine demand of a better deal on the power projects handed over by
Farooq Abdullah to NHPC would not have endangered NC’s political power, but the party is now so scared even as to breath freely that it muzzled the voice of even its own members who had expressed solidarity with the PDP resolution.
He said though it was clear from day one that NC had sold out the autonomy resolution passed by state legislature for power, but it has stopped even to make the ritual lip service to it. He said the abject surrender of that party’s agenda became clear once more when in the Assembly a member of another party raised the issue but NC itself did not want to press it. “How can a party that is not able to demand
a fair deal on our waters be able to fight for autonomy” he wondered and said it should now become clear to people that the solution to their problems lays elsewhere.
Mufti said revocation of the draconian AFSPA and withdrawal of troops from civilian areas was essential to move on the resolution course. “It is the essence of my political experience that Kashmir can never reconcile to strong arm methods or subversion of democratic
norms”, he said and added the sooner we understand this basic truth the better it would be for the state and the South Asia.
Calling for an immediate release of political prisoners, Mufti said jail was not the battle ground in a democratic system. How long and how many will the government arrest for political beliefs? He said he had always believed the battle of ideas has to be fought on ideological plane and had practiced that between 2002 and 2006, with dramatic effect on the situation.
The convention passed a resolution demanding revocation of AFSPA, withdrawal of troops from civilian areas and release of political prisoners without delay.