Chief spokesperson of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Rafi Ahmad Mir on Saturday said that “there was nothing wrong in condoling the killing of local militants.”
“Following the PDP policy, I would visit (the family) of slain militant for condolences and that time PDP secretary would also visit,” said Mir while referring to visits of Mehbooba Mufti to the homes of slain militants.
He said that his party’s belief hasn’t changed after coming to power. “Whether it is a CRPF man or our local militant, there is no bar on offering condolences. However, it depends on the security situation, sometime we can go and sometimes not,” he said.
Mir also said that they had to “shelve” their election agenda to form the government with the BJP. “Otherwise state would have incurred losses as they needed Delhi’s assistance in running government in the state.”
Rafi, who lost 2014 election from Pahalgam constituency, said: “Unfortunately what happened is that we had to shelve our election agenda. We won around 28 seats. In Jammu, BJP got a highest share of probably 26 seats”.
Saying that both the parties had “entirely different perspectives on governance of Jammu and Kashmir”, Mir said: “On article 370, they had different perspective, while our perspective was different. On running government in the state and of both the regions, they had a different perspective and we also had altogether different. But we had to join, since we had to form the government.” Otherwise, Mir said that “there were apprehensions of further losses”.
Saying that they needed assistance from Delhi for running the government in the state, Mir agreed that the decision has also brought “resentment” among the party voters.
“We needed assistance of Delhi government here. We took a decision, a very harsh decision, a bitter decision. There was resentment in our voters also. There is no doubt over it,” he said.
Blaming protests for the non-implementation of the agenda of alliance, he said, “there are reasons for the lethargy in agenda of alliance, since last three years went in turmoil. There was turmoil in 2016 and remained in 2017 also. In 2015 it had begun when Mufti sahib was alive. He had started work on all the works of agenda alliance. Be it power projects or other problems. The situation made us to put some things on back-burner”.
Responding to a question about the party’s advocacy in AFSPA revocation, he said: “In removing of AFSPA, PDP was a champion in 2013 and 2014. But after that the situation emerged due to which we had to move back on certain issues. But as far as our party is concerned, we know that we have to reach people only through the agenda of alliance.
Expressing his shock and anguish over the Sopore IED blast that left four policemen dead, Mir said: “It was a heart wrenching incident. It seemed that peace will come, but it came as a jolt not only for the government or the party, but for entire JK. Those were children of Jammu and Kashmir state. Whosever is killed, be it policeman or militant, we condemn it…”