Jammu, July 31: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devender Singh Rana on Monday hit out at the Peoples’ Democratic Party leadership for its “dubious role” in “promoting separatism and creating disharmony” in the inclusive Jammu & Kashmir over the decades in different avatars.
Reacting to the remarks of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti against BJP at the PDP Foundation Day, Rana, while talking to the reporters on the sidelines of a party function here, said the people of Kashmir are well aware of the “dubious role” played by the PDP and its leadership in different forms and colours to instigate and exploit the people.
“When it suits the PDP leadership, they can go to any extent in raising communal passions, as they did in 1984 and 1987,” Rana said, recalling the years of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as Home Minister “when the national interest was hugely compromised”.
“PDP’s close links with anti-national and subversive elements, especially during 2002 and 2009, are well known,” he said. He recalled the “sinister observations” of the then PDP chief “who went to the extent of telling terrorists in 2002 that they need not worry as their representatives were in the assembly”.
“Much water has flown down the Jhelum during the past five years after the abrogation of Article 370 that brought about a discernible turnaround in the situation in the valley and opened up vistas of economic opportunities across Jammu & Kashmir in the wake of focused attention towards infrastructural development and massive investments,” Rana said.
Normalised and peaceful Kashmir doesn’t fit in with their schemes, which is why they can’t conceal their discomfort on seeing the valley humming with activities round the clock, be it summer or the winter, the BJP leader said, adding, “Never ever has Kashmir witnessed such a tourism and pilgrim boom that is directly associated with the economy of both the regions of Kashmir and Jammu.”
Devender Rana added, “Whenever self-proclaimed representatives of Kashmir feel politically irrelevant; they raise the bogey of talks with Pakistan, terrorists and separatists, forgetting how severe miseries they have brought to the people. On the other hand, they used to remain in close proximity to those at the helm to bargain for power. However, such a strategy of ‘blackmail and exploitation’ has ended under the dynamic and decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
