PDP turns down PM's appeal

Will not attend all-party meet today.

Opposition PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti today rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s appeal to attend an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tomorrow to discuss the situation in Kashmir and sought his intervention to defuse tension in the Valley.

The Prime Minister, who had spoken to Mehbooba yesterday, was understood to have impressed upon her the need for the government and the opposition to be on the same side to tackle the current situation in violence-hit Kashmir, while requesting her to attend the all-party meet.

“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,” Mehbooba said.

“The situation is so bad that we need to defuse the tension on the ground and need a bigger initiative from the highest authority which would be taken seriously by the people,” she said, adding she wanted to be “excused” from the meeting.

The PDP chief said Home Minister P Chidambaram also called her up yesterday.

Mehbooba maintained “nothing will come out of the proposed all-party meeting. The state government has lost credibility and has exhausted all the options”.

Requesting the Prime Minister to intervene, she said he has the authority to take an initiative that would be regarded seriously by the 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 Chief Minister was on a damage control exercise, she said, “Fire fighting is being done at the national level”.

Replying to questions, she demanded lifting of “curbs” on the media, withdrawal of army and an end to the “crackdown”.

“We had written a letter a month back (to the chief minister) to prevent a situation like the present one. The government received cautions and suggestions from various quarters but it continued doing what it thought was fit,” Mehbooba said.

Attacking the Chief Minister for his “failure” to tackle the crisis, she claimed, “People have lost confidence. The valley is engulfed with alienation and anger.”

“I hear him (Omar) giving me an ultimatum to attend the meeting.... If I attend I become the solution, (but) if I don’t I become a part of the problem,” she said.

According to PDP sources, the Chief Minister had also written to Mehbooba that he was pained to hear about the decision of her party not to attend the all-party meet and asked her to reconsider it.

Omar had also spoken to Mehbooba on telephone.