On campaign trail, Mehbooba launches scathing attack on NC

Launching a scathing attack on National Conference, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today said the ruling party has converted itself into an "available appendage" for sharing power with whosoever rules in Delhi and by doing so it has lost its regional character.
"The ruling party has abandoned governance and left the people to their own devices of survival in the belief that it can stick to power through its 'special contacts' at the Centre," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said at a rally in Pulwama segment of Anantanag parliamentary constituency.
Mehbooba, who is contesting from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat against NC's sitting MP Mehboob Beig, said her party is fighting the polls to reverse the trend of "elected representatives becoming agents" of others in Parliament just to share crumbs of power.

"We are going to Parliament with a definite agenda to bring the Kashmir problem to national focus and change the approach of the Centre towards Jammu and Kashmir which till now has been treated only as a security project," she said.
She said the coming polls are a fight for "dignity and justice" for the people and whosoever forms the government at the Centre, PDP will engage all -- be it the opposition, regional parties and other shades of opinion both in and outside Parliament -- to seek a new Kashmir policy along with a road map for its implementation.

The PDP president said of all the regional parties in the country, NC stands out for its "dubious role" and its "inability to raise vital issues" facing the state.

"While all other regional parties are asserting their regional representative character to earn benefits for their states, NC has historically done the opposite.
"Instead of seeking any benefit for the state they have been representing for decades, NC always found comfort in surrendering its political authority, administrative space and natural resources to the Centre," she alleged.
She said the people of the state had so far voted National Conference in most elections with the hope that it would be able to safeguard their interests.

"While NC never lived up to that expectation, its present tenure in Parliament has perhaps been the worst. Its members collaborated in the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru (Parliament attack convict), while the state governments of Punjab and Tamil Nadu and their MPs stood up for similarly placed cases," the PDP president said.
She alleged that being in power both at the Centre and in the state, the NC presided over the killings of hundreds of youths. She also slams the party over alleged scams in the state. "Voting for NC will mean endorsement of their shameful acts, fraud and deceit," she said.