Modi govt guided more by politics than national interest: BSP

Coming down heavily on the Narendra Modi government's policies on Kashmir and national security, BSP chief Mayawati today said it appeared to be guided "more by politics than national interest".
"The policies and working style of the Modi government as regards Jammu and Kashmir and national security appear more inspired by politics than national interest," she was quoted as saying by a party release here.
Mayawati, who presided over a meeting of BSP leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal today, alleged that the BJP's "hunger for power" was such that it was "targeting the opposition parties ignoring national interest".

"National interest is being ignored at a time when there is tension on the border and the army is facing all kinds of challenges," she said, while alleging that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had deteriorated as decisions were being taken "more for political gains than for the people and national interest".
"Although, there is a PDP-BJP government at the helm there (J&K), it has proved to be a failure," she claimed, adding that the "wrong policies" of the coalition had posed "new challenges" before the army.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said it seemed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had lost faith in the government and the political vacuum thus created needed to be addressed through "long-term measures".

The cancellation of the Lok Sabha by-poll in Anantnag after a low voter turnout in Srinagar was a case in point to show that the PDP-BJP government had failed to live up to the expectations (of the people of J&K) and that there was a need to deal with the "dissatisfaction among the youth and students (of the state) with political understanding", she claimed.
But, it appeared that the government wanted to solve every issue "at gunpoint", said Mayawati.