Don't need any certificate on integrity, Mufti tells Modi

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron and former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed on Saturday asserted that his party doesn’t need any certificate on integrity, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should stop his “vilification campaign”.

Addressing election rallies in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district and north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, he said, “Modi is staking the prestige of the high office he occupies by indulging in defamatory rhetoric for electoral gains in J&K.”

While addressing election rallies in Jammu region on Friday, Modi had alleged that over the last 30 years, Jammu and Kashmir’s journey on the path of development has come to a standstill and corruption, loot and blackmail has become a habit of its politicians.

Reacting to Modi’s allegations, Mufti said, “Unfortunately, he (Modi) is doing so without regard to facts or the perception among the people of the State. It is very alarming that the prime minister of a large country like ours should be so much ill-informed about the ground realities of a sensitive state like J&K and just for adding few seats in the Assembly he should sacrifice facts and promote a culture of character assassination.”

Mufti said J&K has a different experience of prime ministerial visits which have generally focused on larger picture of the region and how peace, stability and development could be ushered in.

“Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee redefined the future course by his visit to Kashmir and his cooperation with the PDP-led government but it is unfortunate that Modi, in spite of swearing by the Vajpayee policy, has so far observed it only in breach,” he said and added that the prime minister has to be a unifying force and not the one who is seen as a source of “division and confrontation”.