Srinagar, Dec 13: All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) today said that the internal bickering and disintegration of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has taken place due to the wrong polices of present party President and former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti.
In a statement, APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said that Mehbooba Mufti failed not only as chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, but also as President of PDP. Raina said that Mehbooba could not pursue the agenda as set out by her father Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and it is due to reason that PDP has disintegrated like a pack of nine pins.
The APSCC Chairman said that Mehbooba played truant with the Sikh community of the state by denying them rights that were due to them under the National Minorities Act. He said the PDP President in fact sabotaged the extension of minority status to Sikhs of the state by filing a counter affidavit in the court of law and that too at the highest level.
“Before 2014 assembly elections Late Mufti Sayeed promised before a huge gathering of Sikhs that he would give minority status to Sikhs of Jammu & Kashmir and the same formed a part of the party manifesto for those elections. However, for three and half years the powerful Kashmiri Pandit lobby ensured that Mufti does not fulfill the promises made to the Sikh community,” said Raina.
The APSCC Chairman said that after being elected as CM of state in 2016, Mehbooba was keen to implement the central policies in state. He said her advisor Prof. Amitabh Mattoo manipulated certain orders and rephrased the same so that the Kashmiri Pandits get benefitted out of the revised orders.
“It is a pity that all the legislators knew about this, but none among them raised a finger against the same. Mehbooba led state government filed an affidavit in Supreme Court and opposed the extension of National Minority Act to Jammu & Kashmir. She also issued SRO 425 by virtue of which employment benefits due to Sikhs were given to the Kashmiri Pandit youth,” said Raina.
The APSCC Chairman said that despite meeting Mehbooba many times no headway whatsoever was made with regards to demands of Sikhs living in Jammu & Kashmir. He demanded that Election Commission of India should ban PDP since the party went against its own election manifesto by opposing minority status to Sikhs and that too in the apex court of country.
Raina said that Kashmiri Pandits can never be given minority status since Hindus are in majority and not in minority in India. He said that communities like Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains have been classified as minorities in India by National Commission for Minorities.
