PDP rules out moving court against dissolution

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, on Monday said that her Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) will not challenge governor Satya Pal Malik’s decision to dissolve the state Assembly in a court of law but go to people’s court “which is superior to any other forum”.

“Some sincere suggestions from well-wishers for me to go to court against governor’s dissolution of Assembly. PDP, NC, INC had come together to safeguard state interests. It is my considered opinion that we must go to people’s court which is superior to any other forum,” she wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Mr. Malik dissolved the House on November 21 evening after the PDP leader Ms Mufti and her arch rival and Peoples’ Conference (PC) chief Sajad Gani Lone staked claim to form a government in the state. Both had claimed support of the required number of the MLAs.

Ms Mufti had in her letter to the governor infor-med him that National Conference (NC) with 15 members and Congress 12 members in the state Legislative Assembly hav-e decided to extend their support to her party to form a government in the state, taking their collective strength to 56. On the other hand, Mr Lone had claimed the support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and more than eighteen other MLAs which, he had said, was more than the required number of members (44) making a majority in the 87-member House.

Various mainstream political parties barring BJP termed the govern-or’s move of dissolving the Assembly as “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. Some of these asked the PDP to challenge the governor’s decision in court.  

However, Mr. Malik justified his decision claiming that he dissolved the Assembly which was in suspended animation since June 20 in the interest of the state and its people and in view of possible horse trading and threats to MLAs.

He had also said the PDP-led alliance would have been “opportunistic” and not provided a viable democratic government to the restive State.  

Meanwhile, NC on Monday called Mr. Lone’s party as a “Trojan horse” of the RSS and accused it of making attempts to sow sectarian divide in the society. “The party denounces the jibes of Peoples’ Conference as dangerous and a bigoted attempt by the poster boys of RSS to divide the society on sectarian basis,” a statement issued by NC’s read.

Its provincial spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar asked the PC to clarify its stand on the “communal rhetoric” being spread across the country by its ally BJP and said, “It’s beyond my comprehension that PC chief Sajad Lone who calls Narendra Modi as his elder brother has the gumption to question the secular credentials of NC. Recently UP Chief Minister had brazenly said ‘let Muslims keep Ali, we have Bajranbali’ and it is with this type of thinking Sajad Lone and Imran Ansari have tied knot with. This is not Vajpayee’s BJP anymore.”

He said that that recent dissolution of the Assembly “has struck as a thunder bolt to the shenanigans of PC and owing to their frustration they are coming up with fanciful charges against our respected colleagues and party leaders”.