Mehbooba hits out at Ram Madhav on 'instruction from Pakistan' remark

Pained at Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Madhav's comment on stitching together of a proposed alliance in Jammu and Kashmir at the behest of Pakistan, the state's former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed her anguish at the "baseless allegations".

In series of tweets, Mehbooba said: "Shocked to see baseless allegations against mainstream parties in JK following dictates from Pakistan levelled by @rammadhavbjp ji."

"Sad to see what the political discourse of our country has been reduced to. How does one define a party's nationalistic credentials? Nationalistic and patriotic only if you are with the Centre and Pakistan sponsored and anti nationalistic otherwise?" she reacted in another tweet.

Having staked claim to form government with the support of Congress and arch rival National Conference (NC), Mehbooba in normal course was expected to stay away from controversies. Instead, she threw her hat into the ring raising the debate of why PDP and NC's credibility were not questioned when they were in alliance with the BJP.

"Both PDP and NC have been allies of BJP at some point. Strange that our credentials werent questioned then. But just because our MLAs had enough integrity to stand up to your failed attempts of defection, they are now anti nationalistic? India is a great country and democracy is a battle of ideas. Lets not make a mockery of those very institutions and people," she added.

Explaining the logic behind PDP's decision to form an alliance with the BJP, she emphasised that it was to change the "pernicious mindset". She tweeted, "Undoubtedly Pakistan has an impact on the situation in J&K. But its upto our country to change that from negative to positive and tread the path that was taken by Vajpayee ji."

Demanding an apology, state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir challenged the BJP General Secretary to prove the allegations, saying: "You have CBI, IB, RAW, Governor. So, you will have to prove this charge or else you must apologise."

Madhav had said that PDP and NC are planning to come together to form government as they "probably had instructions from across the border to come together and form government."

In a spring of surprise on Wednesday, rivals PDP, NC along with Congress confirmed that they stitched up an alliance to form government in the fragile state which has been under Governor's Rule since June following BJP pulling the strings and ending its ruling with alliance partner PDP.

As they went into huddle to cobble up numbers, Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly. The move came hours after Mehbooba sent a letter to him staking claim.

In the fast moving development as the three political parties were setting the chess board, BJP-backed People's Conference Chief Sajjad Lone also staked claim to form the government. However, he too failed to get through to the Governor's fax like Mehbooba.