NC afraid of talking about Article 370, running BJP agenda: Mehbooba Mufti

Rajouri/Jammu: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the National Conference, claiming that the ruling party is afraid of talking about Article 370 and is running the BJP agenda in Jammu and Kashmir.

She asked the people to strengthen her party as “it not only wants to become the voice of the people of J-K but also raise the voice for the oppressed Muslim community in the country”.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was in Rajouri, where she addressed a public gathering besides holding a series of meetings with party workers, during her first visit to the region after the PDP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections last year. While Mehbooba herself lost from the Rajouri-Anantnag parliamentary constituency, only three PDP candidates successfully contested the assembly elections.

“As far as the performance of this (NC-led government) is concerned, we do not expect them to do everything in six months but we regret that some important things like the Waqf bill happened and they failed to live up to people’s expectations,” the PDP chief told reporters.

She said her party was hoping that J-K being a Muslim majority region would pass a resolution in the assembly to lodge a strong protest against the Act. “We were left disappointed when (NC president) Farooq Abdullah and his son (chief minister Omar Abdullah) welcomed the Union minister (Kiren Rijiju) who tabled the bill in the (Tulip) garden in Srinagar.”

The National Conference had already clarified that it was a chance meeting.