Mehbooba talks tough, wants concrete steps by Modi govt

Uncertainty grew over government formation today with a tough-talking PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti saying she will take a call after "reassessing" whether ally BJP's government at the Centre would take substantive steps in a "set timeframe" to address the "core" political and economic issues of the state.
Mehbooba, who is seen as the successor to her late father as Chief Minister, told a four-hour long meeting with party leaders, including MPs, MLAs, zonal presidents and block presidents, that Mufti Sayeed had taken "a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with BJP with the hope that Narendra Modi at the Centre will take decisive measures to address the core political and economic issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir and its people."

However, "instead of partnering with and implementing Sayeed's vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to J-K, certain quarters, both within the state and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the state government's energies in firefighting and propitiation," she said, slamming the ally.
"In such violative circumstances around, the party will have to reassess whether we can absorb the shocks which Sayeed had to do so frequently in his effort to forge reconciliation between the regions and the people of the state," she said.
The PDP chief, who has called the much-awaited meeting of Legislature Party here tomorrow, said during the 10-month coalition government headed by her late father, "there was little movement forward on implementation of political and economic initiatives.

"Instead there were some recurrent unsettling developments which led to lack of congenial atmosphere and had a negative impact even on the good work done on the governance front."

She underlined that "The Government of India shall have to take substantive measures towards implementation of the PDP-BJP 'Agenda of Alliance' in the interest of peace and stability in J-K and for this PDP needs a set timeframe to be worked out."
Mehbooba, who has already been authorized by the party to take a decision on government formation, told the meeting today that she is "ready to take a call on it once she is convinced that the purpose and the objective of the alliance that Mufti had forged with Prime Minister Narendra Modi" would be taken to its logical conclusion.

Underlining that the "purpose" of the alliance was "not limited" to government formation but to take the state "out of the trouble that it has faced for most part of its history," she said, "The PDP will have to reassess whether the central government is ready to trust the people of Jammu and Kashmir and carry out implementation of 'Agenda of Alliance' with sincerity of purpose.