More democracy need in JK: Mehbooba

Srinagar: Castigating government for barring entry to noted human rights activist and writer Gautam Naulakha, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Monday called for “more democracy” in the state to move forward on resolution and development fronts. “While the people within the state were struggling to cope up with the draconian methods of the government it chose to send signals of intolerance and arrogance across the world by expelling prominent public figures for the first time in recent history,” she told a meeting of party workers in Mirgund Pattan near here today. Newly elected panchs and sarpanchs of Pattan Assembly constituency.Mehbooba said democracy in the state had been a victim of National Conference’s dictatorial methods from day one and its revival was not possible without providing a limitless liberty to democracy and its institutions. “More democracy and not less is required in the state to move forward on resolution and development fronts,” she stressed. “But unfortunately by following its own petty agenda the NC was once again trying to scuttle processes and traditions associated with democratic temper”, she regretted and said by denying liberty to prominent human rights activist and columnist Gautam Naulakha to enter the state the government had sent a shrill message across.Mehbooba said till now it has been a routine fact of life to be imprisoned or detained in Kashmir without a charge or judicial process but now the coalition has added another chapter to it story of intolerance by doing what no government thought necessary for decades. She said the extreme step indicates a serious sense of insecurity that the present government suffers from and it has raised questions not just about the state government but the democratic credential of the country as a whole. “The country’s democratic system is paying a huge price for the ineptitude of a state government that violates all laws with impunity be it some citizen’s liberty to move, or right to life,” she said.Referring to the remarks of union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah threatening action against celebrated author Arundhati Roy if she came to Kashmir, Mehbooba said the streak of intolerance runs through the entire NC leadership. “I had vainly hoped him to advise tolerance to his son but Farooq sahib has gone a step ahead by damning the writer and books that expose his party’s misdeeds in Kashmir” she said and promised a full blooded struggle from her party cadres against gagging voices in and about Kashmir. She said the state was nobody’s personal property and the days of NC’s unquestioned methods were over as people had become conscious of their rights and had found an alternative in PDP that would never compromise on their dignity and rights.Referring to the Panchayat elections Mehbooba said people had ‘stunned’ the ruling party even in areas which they considered still as its stronghold by convincingly defeating anyone associated with the party. This has not only expanded the political space for PDP and its agenda but had actually deprived NC of any moral substance if it ever had. “The NC will henceforth just try to survive on borrowed lifelines” she said terming the grass roots approval of her party as a turning point in the political equations of the state.Mehbooba said the source of satisfaction for her party was not in mere numbers but in the fact that people had started auditing and judging the performance of different parties. This she said will spare the people the same deceit and backstabbing in future that they have suffered for six decades at the hands of NC. She said obviously in this election the people had taken a note of the functioning of previous coalition in its first three years and that of the NC led government which too is completing its first half of its tenure soon.