PDP rejects PM’s request to attend talks

NEW DELHI: In a development seen as a setback to the Centre’s efforts restore normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s appeal to attend an all-party meeting convened by chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The absence of PDP, the main opposition in the state is certain to hamper efforts of Centre and state to re-establish peace and normalcy in the strife-torn region.

``I have a deep regard for the prime minister. We appreciate all his initiatives. I feel pained to convey my inability to attend the meeting,” Ms Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in Srinagar.

The PM had spoken to the PDP leader earlier urging her to attend the all-party meet, telling her that it was important for the government and opposition to get together for finding a way to bring back peace in the Valley.

Ms Mufti refused to budge from her stand that the meeting will not help in defusing tension and asked the prime minister to intervene. She said he had the authority to take an initiative that would be regarded seriously by the people.

“I told the prime minister that we need to reach out to the people. He has the stature and authority to take the initiative since the chief minister admitted to have lost credibility among people... We need an initiative which has an effect on the people and not on the international and national scenario,” she said.

Alleging that the state government had exhausted all options, the opposition leader said, “the situation is so bad that we need to defuse tension on the ground and need a bigger initiative from the highest authority which would be taken seriously by the people.”

She said the chief minister was on a damage control exercise and “fire fighting was being done at the national level.”

Ms Mufti demanded ‘lifting of curbs’ on the media, withdrawal of Army and an end to the ‘crackdown.’ Ms Mufti is peeved that she was being invited for the meeting after crucial decisions like calling the Army into Srinagar was taken.

The chief minister had written to the Opposition leader and spoken to her on Saturday, but she had rejected his request to attend the all-party meeting. He had said that if Ms Mufti did not become part of the solution by attending the meeting, she would be part of the problem.

“On the one hand, the chief minister has invited me to attend the all-party meet and on the other hand he has been giving me ultimatum through television channels like George Bush saying that if I attend the meeting then I was part of the solution and if didn’t, I was part of the problem. Nothing is going to come out of the meet,” she said.

However, on the eve of the meeting the chief minister has got the backing of all Congress MLAs who expressed “full faith and confidence” in his leadership.

At a specially called meeting of legislators belonging to the ruling National Conference-Congress coalition here, it was decided that “government will put in place an appropriate mechanism to address grievances and problems of the people in a more vibrant, systematic, regular and time-bound manner which will be viewed and reviewed from time to time by the government.”

Political parties and groups invited for Monday’s meeting include Bhim Singh’s Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, BJP, Democratic Party Nationalist, CPM and PDF.