One of the founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig on Thursday claimed PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti should not have made a 'provocative' statement that none would be left to hold the Tricolour in Jammu & Kashmir if Article 370 was tampered with.
Reacting to one of the straight questions during his first media interaction in Jammu after August 5, PDP stalwart Baig maintained, “that statement was made by Mehbooba Mufti in my absence. I was not there when she made that statement”. He said, “statements like that resulted in downgrading Jammu & Kashmir from State to Union Territory.It didn't help us. That statement should not have been made”.
Talking about his own approach on such issues, Baig clarified, “if people of Jammu & Kashmir have to stay together and take up their issues/grievances, then we have to be polite and humble in our approach. We cannot intimidate Prime Minister, Home Minister and even NSA of the country with our aggressive approach.We cannot earn anything”.
Expressing his serious concerns over continuous detention of three former Chief Ministers like Mehbooba Mufti, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, Baig said, “They took oath under Indian Constitution. They stood against Hurriyat and fought militancy. And, now all of them have been detained since August 4” .
Seeking their immediate release Baig said that when one of Farooq Abdullah’s friend moved a petition under Section 107 (then RPC, now IPC) questioning detention of a former CM and sitting MP, Government slapped PSA on him.
“Others, who were thinking of doing the same, dropped the idea out of the fear of getting booked under PSA,” he said.
“I want to urge the Government that detained politicians should be immediately released and if they have done something wrong then book them under sedition charges and let them face trials,” Baig added.
The PDP leader said that since the state lost its special status and has been downgraded to Union Territories, he would like the Centre and Parliament to ensure domicile safeguards, land and job rights to the people of Jammu & Kashmir on the lines of northeastern states.
“The Government has put domicile safeguards via Article 371 in Northeastern states. Since J&K is also a hilly region and unemployment is a serious problem here, there should be similar domicile safeguards, job and land rights in place for the people here”, he said.