Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that muscular policies will only prove counterproductive in tackling the present crises in the state and if her party comes to power, it will scrap the ban imposed by the government on JKLF and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Addressing workers’ convention in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Mehbooba said banning organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami and JKLF will have far-reaching consequences and such measures only lead to alienation and frustration among people.
“In a democracy, ideas are allowed to flourish and not choked. By taking such undemocratic, unconstitutional and unnatural measures, the government in actual is trying to show its electorate how tough it is against the Muslims and against Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said in her address while assuring that if the PDP comes to power, it will make strenuous efforts to undo the BJP’s wrongs.
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She said the muscular approach will not take the state anywhere as this has been tried for several decades and hasn’t yielded any positive outcome.
“The reality must be drawn upon those at the helm that trigger-happy approach will not solve the Jammu and Kashmir problem. Confidence building measures, dialogue and reconciliation are the only ways that could protect the state from an apocalypse,” Mehbooba said.
Speaking on the opening of the Sharda Peeth corridor across the Line of Control (LoC), the former CM said it can "help navigate" the current India-Pakistan impasse.
The PDP President said any attempt to fiddle with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir is fraught with dangerous consequences and has the tendency to turn the state into a war theatre.
