Need concrete assurances from centre on alliance agenda: Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday that she needs effective, time-bound assurances on implementation of the agenda of alliance from the central government to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Noting the Narendra Modi government will have to reach out to the state's people with decisive political and economic confidence-building measures (CBMs), she said her father, late chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, "took a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with BJP", hoping its government will take decisive measures to address the "core political and economic issues" concerning the state and its people.

"Unfortunately, instead of partnering with and implementing Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir, certain quarters, both within J&K and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the state government's energies in firefighting and propitiation," she said in a statement after her party's core group meeting here.

"In such violative circumstances around, we will have to reassess whether we can absorb the shocks which Mufti Sahab had to do so frequently in his effort to forge reconciliation between the regions and the people of the state," she said.

"PDP can't form a government just for the sake of power but, if it does, it will be, as envisioned by Mufti Sahab, with the objective of addressing the core political and economic issues confronting J&K as was done by the PDP-led government between 2002 and 2005," she asserted.

She said the Modi government will have to take substantive measures towards implementation of the PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance and her PDP "needs a set timeframe to be worked out".

"The PDP will have to reassess whether the central government is ready to trust the people of Jammu and Kashmir and carry out implementation of 'Agenda of Alliance' with sincerity of purpose," she said, noting it makes clear that the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to the state including on special status.

She said the agenda made it clear that the coalition government will seek to support and strengthen the approach and initiatives taken "to create a reconciliatory environment and build stakes for all in the peace and development within the sub-continent including normalisation of relations with Pakistan".

Mehbooba Mufti noted though real progress was made during the past 10 months towards the implementation of good governance practices listed in the agenda of alliance, there was little movement forward on implementation of political and economic initiatives.

"Instead there were some recurrent unsettling developments which led to lack of congenial atmosphere and had a negative impact even on the good work done on the governance front," she said, adding the Sayeed government's "some pioneering developmental and welfare initiatives could not make a mark among the people because of some unsettling issues being raised by certain quarters repeatedly".

"Amid recurring contestations and controversies, Mufti Sahab worked tirelessly and tried his best to carry everybody along and bring some relief to the people on the governance front and unfortunately, this taxing overdoing ultimately took a heavy toll on his health.

"Jammu and Kashmir today needs the political will and statesmanship to pull the state out of the morass, which no government in the state could do amid recurrent rumblings over the issues that have already been settled in the constitution," she said. (IANS)