New Delhi: Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given her “100 per cent assurance” that he would fully support the agenda of governance of the PDP-BJP combine in the state, which clearly mentions there will be no change with the current status of Article 370.
Ms Mufti’s comments came after her meeting with the PM in the wake of recent reports that she was trying to evolve a larger political consensus on any possible move to revoke the constitutional provisions that grant special status to J&K.
“The agenda of alliance clearly states there would be no fiddling with Article 370 and the status quo would be maintained. Since this is the basis of the agenda, no one can go against it. The PM’s response was very positive and he has given a 100 per cent assurance on the agenda between the two parties,” Ms Mufti said. The PDP and the BJP are alliance partners in J&K.
Ms Mufti had also met home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday amid the ongoing discussion over revoking the special status for J&K, which has also been challenged in the Supreme Court through a PIL.
The CM also claimed she informed the PM that the state was going through a difficult situation though there was a gradual improvement. Ms Mufti said there was a view among people in the state that their identity was in danger and a clear message needed to be sent out that there was no such possibility.
“During the time of accession, despite being a a Muslim-majority state, (J&K) took a different decision to join our country, India. The state has a very peculiar diversity where everything is different... as even though being a Muslim-majority state, there are Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists living in there too. It was a question that the idea of India has to accommodate with the idea of Jammu and Kashmir,” the CM added.
Ms Mufti said J&K was the “crown of India”, and after what the state went through last year there should be no discussion on contentious issues like the special status as wounds were gradually getting healed. “Despite J&K being a Muslim-majority state, it rejected the two-nation theory and joined this country with the view that aspirations, identity would always remain alive. And that identity should always remain alive,” she added.
