SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir’s main Opposition National Conference (NC) has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of sabotaging the NSA-level talks between India and Pakistan. The party has also sought the CM’s resignation over the detention of Kashmiri separatist leaders in Delhi.
“Mufti-Modi jugalbandi -- first I’ll detain them, then you detain them and together we’ll make sure these talks just don’t take place. Wah,” former state Chief Minister and NC working president Omar Abdullah tweeted.
He was referring to the detention of senior separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) founder Shabir Shah at Delhi Airport on Saturday. Another separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone, brother of J&K minister Sajad Gani Lone, was also placed under house arrest after he reached the national capital on Saturday evening.
In another tweet, Omar slammed Mufti, saying “This was (the same) Mufti Sayeed who had staked claim to the Srinagar-Muzaffrabad road opening and Indo-Pak ceasefire. How the mighty fall”.
“Spare a thought for the BJP and the PDP’s “Agenda for Alliance”, which was well and truly shredded today. May it rest in pieces,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, NC’s spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu said detention of Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi was part of an understanding between the NDA Government and Mufti as part of a larger fixed-match between the two alliance partners.
“It had become evident and apparent that Mufti had arrived at an understanding with the Central government and the BJP to remain silent on the detention of separatist leaders in exchange for the party’s assurance that they would desist from destabilising his (Mufti) government in J&K,” he said.
Mattu said if this weren’t the case, Mufti should resign as Chief Minister.
He said the meeting between separatist leaders and visiting Pakistani NSA Sartaj Aziz was nothing new and such interactions were usually the side consultations, which were mostly ignored by the media and allowed to take place by the successive Central governments.
“All previous governments, including the NDA-I Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee allowed Hurriyat leaders to meet visiting Pakistani delegations and this was never allowed to become a provocation that could hamper dialogue. Now, the meeting between the Hurriyat leadership and the Pakistani NSA has been elevated as the apparent central issue -- which has, in turn, created a situation of grave uncertainty”, NC spokesman said.
Taking a dig at CM Mufti, he said, the person who advocated dialogue among Hurriyat, New Delhi and Islamabad after heading the PDP-BJP coalition Government put Hurriyat leaders under house arrest to prevent them from going to the national capital.
Meanwhile in New Delhi, the Congress alleged the cancellation of the talks “reflects Modi government’s foreign policy failure.”
“Confusion, consternation and casual callousness are the three C’s of Modi government’s foreign policy which lacks both maturity and vision,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said soon after Pakistan called off the talks in the backdrop of India’s insistence on terror being the talks’ sole focus. He asked Modi “to rise above pure rhetoric and address the issues of internal and external terrorism whose focal points lie in Pakistan.”