Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti took a dig at the BJP while speaking about a host of issues, including militancy, India's standoff with China and abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to media reports, the former J&K chief minister taunted the saffron party, saying the BJP will be out of power just like Donald Trump. "Look what has happened in America. Trump has gone. So, will the BJP," she was quoted as saying.
Mufti had, on Saturday, congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris on their victory, saying their win gives hope that "right wing extremism" will sooner or later be relegated to the pages of history.
Addressing media during her first visit to Jammu after her release from 14 months of detention under the Pubic Safety Act (PSA), she asserted that the dialogue with Pakistan and the stakeholders within J&K and opening of cross-border roads to bring the divided parts together can bring peace and everlasting solution to the problem of militancy in the Kashmir valley.
The PDP chief alleged that attempts are being made to vitiate the atmosphere by politics of hatred and division.
She warned that militancy is on the rise with more youths preferring militancy over going to jail after no middle path was left and voices of dissent silenced through the muzzle of power. The youth is thinking of two options: whether to go to jail or pick up the gun, and he chooses later to get killed rather than going to the jail, she added.
Mehbooba said the situation on the borders is of concern to the people as local residents are living under the constant threat to their lives due to the continued cross-border shelling.
Asked how it is possible when there is no let-up in Pakistani shelling and mounting civilian casualties, she said, We have to pick up a leaf from former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee's book.
Despite the Kargil war and Parliament attack, he entered into a friendship with Pakistan as a result of which the militancy had come down and the border firing also had stopped, she said.
We have to take a leaf out of that book and start a dialogue with them (Pakistan) and with the stakeholders in J&K. When we can hold eight rounds of talks with China which martyred our 20 soldiers and we did not even raise our finger, she asserted.
(With PTI inputs)
