Three People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders on Monday resigned from the party in protest against former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s remarks that she would not fly the Indian flag until the August 5 changes were rolled back. The PDP chief made this remark while addressing the media. She also called the Central government “robbers” and demanded the restoration of Jammu & Kashmir’s separate flag. It needs to be mentioned that the J & K leader was released earlier this month after 14 months in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The three leaders are Hussain A. Waffa, T S Bajwa and Ved Mahajan. They said that some of the utterances and actions of the party chief were “unpardonable” and would not be forgotten by the people at a time when the party attempted to “regain its image” as a political alternative in the state.
According to the letter they wrote to her: We are feeling quite uncomfortable over some of your actions and undesirable utterances especially which hurt patriotic sentiments… .
It hardly needs to be stated that Ms. Mufti was among several other leaders to be put into detention in August last year following the dilution of Article 370 and the division of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
Ms. Mufti is a member of the “People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration”, a grouping of the state’s political parties formed for the restoration of Article 370.
On its part and in protest against her comments, the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir organized a Tiranga march in Srinagar and Jammu.
