PDP vows to provide voice to Muslims in Parliament

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said that her party will try to provide voice to the aspirations of Muslims across the country in Parliament.

Addressing a workers meeting in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, Mehbooba said: “The position of Jammu and Kashmir as the only Muslim majority state of the country is unique and the National Conference’s failure in rising above ministerial positions for its members and personal interests has deprived even Indian Muslims of credible leadership.”

She said that the PDP will seek an implementable Kashmir policy at the national level and “keeping that in view the present Parliamentary elections could prove a turning point in asserting our democratic right.”

“While doing so, we will also try to fill the representation gap for the 20 crore Muslims of the country, who have unfortunately been pushed back in the race for development,” Mehbooba added.

The PDP chief alleged that the National Conference (NC) focused only on personal luxury and positions of power and never stood up for the rights either of the people who voted for them or for the Muslims across the country.

“The NC continued to remain part of the NDA even after the Gujarat massacre and didn’t sacrifice the minister of state position, which Omar Abdullah was holding in the Vajpayee government. Not only this, Farooq Abdullah gave a clean chit to Modi even before the courts did so and lately claimed to have seen Allah in his eyes,” she alleged.

Mehbooba said the NC must share the failure of the UPA government to solve the problems of the Muslims of the country.  “The NC never raised their voice against any communal riot, as representatives of the only Muslim majority state. It also failed to press the passage of Communal Riots Bill,” she said.

Similarly, they never pressed the UPA for implementation of Sachar Committee report, which had identified the problems facing the Muslim community and listed the biases and discrimination against them, she added.