Questionning PDP patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's moral authority on corruption, ruling NC today hit out at him saying that during his rule, Jammu and Kashmir was tagged the second most corrupt state in India.
In a joint statement issued by leaders, the party said it does not behove well for a former Chief Minister to test the public memory on the issue and pretend like "an ostrich".
"We question the moral standing of People's Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on corruption.
"He will go in the annals of history as a Chief Minister credited with tagging Jammu and Kashmir with the stigma of being second most corrupt state after Bihar," the party said.
"Such was the intensity that the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had to say in 2007 that his government would do all that is required to remove this blot," it said.
It does not behove well for a former Chief Minister to test the public memory and pretend like an ostrich, it said. "The people are sagacious enough to differentiate between right and wrong."
Signatories to the statement included legislators, Rachpal Singh, Aijaz Jan, Bimla Luthra, Dr Shehnaz Ganai, former ministers Govind Ram Sharma, Syed Mushtaq Bukhari and Babu Ram Paul.
NC referred to the policy of divide and rule during PDP rule, which they called a devastating chapter in the history of the state, and its later machinations that led to regional and communal polarisation in the wake of 2008 agitation.
"People are yet to come out of that nightmare, which led Jammu and Kashmir to devastation and destruction," it said.
On Sayeed's remarks about institutionalising transparency in the system, the NC said during the PDP rule, corruption and nepotism were institutionalised.
Several PDP legislators were mired in controversies even as some of them faced serious corruption charges.
"The State Accountability Commission had indicted some of the legislators, who continue to be the frontal leaders of the party," the statement said. "People's Democratic Party has taken it upon itself to accommodate all tainted officials."
NC said the various watchdog bodies, which were rendered teeth-less, have been reactivated and strengthened.
"Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has made corruption-free Jammu and Kashmir his major agenda and the State Accountability Commission has been made fully functional and the State Vigilance Commission put in place," it said, expressing the resolve of National Conference to fight corruption with full might.
