Cong attacks PDP on Article 35-A issue

Jammu: The Congress today targeted the ruling PDP in Jammu and Kashmir over alleged attempts to abrogate Article 35-A of the Constitution which empowers the state’s legislature to define its “permanent residents” and accord special rights and privileges to them.

“Raising an alarm on the attempts of abrogation of Article 35-A by the PDP leaders was yet another chameleon attempt by them to deceive the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” senior Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra said in a statement tonight.

Karra, a former PDP leader who resigned as the MP from Srinagar, appealed to the people to realise that tinkering with Article 35-A could take away the right of state subject certificate, which otherwise, was protecting the distinct identity of the state.

The former finance minister said that he had cautioned the PDP against allying with the BJP.

The Congress leader said, “Now that Chief Minster Mehbooba Mufti has raised a warning against abrogation of Article 35-A, she actually has endorsed my stand and justified my moral ground for quitting the PDP.” 

Mehbooba should have shown the “high moral ground” at the time of “recobbling and renegotiating” the alliance with the BJP after her father and chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death, he said.

Had that been the case, “the situation would have been different”, he claimed.

Karra said, “The PDP leadership is now trying to use the slogans again in order to shield their misdeeds and misadventures.” 

“But the people are now too wise to fall prey to the chameleon politics of the PDP,” he added.