Mehbooba hits back at Shah; says PDP never 'wavered' on Agenda of Alliance

Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti lashed out at the BJP in a series of tweets posted from her Twitter handle today. Her statements came a day after BJP Chief Amit Shah on Saturday targetted her while addressing a public rally in the state.

Mufti noted that the BJP had levelled "many false charges against us". Our commitment to the Agenda of the alliance, co-authored by Ram Madhav and endorsed by senior leaders like Rajnath Ji, never wavered. It is sad to see them disown their own initiative and label it a 'soft approach'," she tweeted out.

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She defended her governance on the agenda of development stating that the state had witnessed many setbacks but that does not mean that there was no development. "Allegations of discrimination against Jammu and Ladakh have no basis in reality". "Yes, the valley has been in turmoil for a long time and the floods of 2014 were a setback, therefore needed focused attention. But that does not mean that there was any less development elsewhere," her tweet read.

Mufti further urged the BJP to "review the performance of their own ministers, who largely represented the Jammu region". "If there were any such concerns, none among them either at the state or central level talked about it during the last 3 years," she added.

"After expressing concern about freedom of expression in J&K following Shujaat's murder, their MLA, notorious and even punished for his role in the aftermath of the unfortunate Kathua case still threatens journalists belonging to the valley, so what are they going to do about him," Mufti questioned.

BJP chief on Saturday, during a public rally in the state, listed out the reasons why the BJP had called off the alliance with the PDP.

Shah said that there was no point to stay in power in Jammu and Kashmir as their party could not achieve the "goal of equal development " with the PDP in the alliance government.

He said, "Last year when I came to Jammu and Kashmir, we were in a coalition government. Today, President's rule is imposed here since we took back our support. Political parties regret when their govt falls but BJP is the only party which raised slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. It shows BJP's patriotism".

He said that they decided to break the alliance with the PDP due to the partiality that continued between Jammu and Ladakh.

"There's no point for BJP to stay in power if the goal of equal development in Jammu & Kashmir isn't achieved. Modi govt made several efforts but partiality towards Jammu & Ladakh continued. That's when we decided that we should rather protest in opposition."