PDP chief and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday Mehbooba Mufti said that NC president Farooq Abdullah must clear his stance on the abrogation of Article 370 after former RAW chief Dulat made a controversial claim, saying Abdullah secretly supported the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.
She said the revelation made in the book “Chief Minister and the Spy is a serious matter, adding, Farooq and NC owe an explanation to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Dulat Sahab is very sympathetic and a friend of the Abdullah family. He said that Farooq Sahab had told him, ‘Why didn’t the BJP take confidence in me? What was the need to deploy so many troops? If they had consulted me, I would have helped in ending Article 370 through the assembly. There was no need to create such a commotion,” Mufti told reporters here.
As per Dulat’s revelations in the book, Farooq Abdullah had expressed disappointment over not being taken into confidence ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Last week, Farooq Abdullah dismissed Dulat’s claims as a “cheap stunt” to boost the sales of the top spy’s memoir. He had suggested that Dulat’s motive behind penning the book could be an attempt to reach the power corridors or earn a lot of money.
Latching on to the opportunity to slam her political rival and the ruling party in the Union Territory, Mehbooba said Dulat did not make the remarks out of malice but as a well-wisher of the Abdullah family.
“He didn’t say it to cause harm, but out of concern so that somehow Farooq Sahab and the BJP could have harmonious relations and work together. He (Abdullah) should be in the good books of the BJP to work together,” she added.
“Omar Sahab talks about Mufti Sahab, but he said many small things. It is not such a big issue,” she said.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hit out at Mehbooba Mufti, saying, “If she believes everything that Dulat writes is true, then should we also consider what he wrote about her father in his first book as true?”
People deserve to know what transpired during the Abdullahs’ visit to the Prime Minister’s office on August 3, just days before the abrogation, Mehbooba added.
Responding to the allegation that the PDP brought RSS into Jammu and Kashmir’s governance, she said her party had tied the BJP’s hands for three years on the issue of Article 370 during the time of the coalition government.
“Did they (BJP) touch Article 370 then? If I had supported them, I would still be the chief minister, and nobody could have touched me. We did not support them.
“Instead, it was Farooq Sahab who said that if the BJP had consulted him, he would have supported them in scrapping Article 370 through the assembly,” she alleged.
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