The BJP and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have entered into a war of words over the issue of a Hindu Chief Minister for Muslim majority Jammu & Kashmir, a controversy triggered by a former Congress Minister last month.
The BJP sharply reacted to PDP legislator Pirzada Mansoor’s statement who asked people to “frustrate BJP’s designs to impose a Hindu Chief Minister on the State”.“This (Mansoor’s statement) is utter frustration of the PDP”, BJP’s Kashmir affairs in-charge Ramesh Arora told reporters.
Arora said the BJP did not believe in dual politics and has clarified that the Chief Minister would be nominated on the basis of merit and not religion. “We have declared that BJP will form the Government on its own strength. Why should PDP, Congress or the NC get frustrated”, he said.
Meanwhile, the PDP accused the State Congress of raking up the issue of Hindu CM but maintained that the PDP “upholds the principle and ideology of secularism and harmony”. “There are certain parties which are trying to forge an alliance with communal elements and want to impose Hindu Chief Minister here. But let me make it clear that Jammu & Kashmir is a Muslim-majority State and can be ruled by a Muslim Chief Minister only”, Pirzada Mansoor was quoted as saying in a PDP statement in reaction to the debate sparked by the Congress.
“Kashmir is a conflict zone and also a sensitive place and if a Hindu Chief Minister is installed, it would have a bearing on its political landscape and other issues may crop up,” Mansoor had said.
The PDP’s chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar said that his party believed in the principles of secularism and the people of the state do not need a certificate from any person vis-à-vis the secular credentials. “Kashmir is known in the world about the religious tolerance and harmony. The people here do not need any certificate from anyone over the issue.”
PDP maintained further that the party is fighting the coming assembly elections not on the basis of religion but on agenda, credibility and road map vis-à-vis the prosperous future for the ‘troubled’ Jammu and Kashmir. “PDP not at all believes that religion is the deciding factor for any person in the state to become the chief minister,” he said.