Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today dropped hints that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was likely to address a public rally in Srinagar during his upcoming visit to the state.
Mufti provided a whiff of Modi’s plans at a meeting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ministers, legislators and party functionaries in Srinagar today. The meeting was chaired by PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.
Modi is scheduled to visit the state on November 5 to inaugurate the Baglihar-II hydel power project. He may announce a financial package for the flood-ravaged state.
“The PM may address a public rally here,” Mufti is believed to have told his party men at the meeting. “It will be an important event like that of Vajpayee (Atal Bihari Vajapee) and every worker should facilitate to make it historic. We are hopeful that the PM’s upcoming visit will open a new chapter in the state and the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ of the coalition government will get a push,” he has told his party men.
Then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had offered a hand of friendship to Pakistan and a dialogue with people of Jammu and Kashmir during a public rally in Srinagar in 2003.
Sources privy to the PDP meeting said Mufti said the PM had an obligation to fulfill all commitments and there were high hopes.
“PM Modi has a dream to make India a superpower and Kashmir is an important component to that, which the PM understands,” Mufti told his men.
“And, since Modi has massive mandate from Jammu and at the national level, so he has a responsibility and he should use this mandate as an opportunity for integration, peace and stability in the subcontinent.”
In the backdrop of increasing attacks against members of the minority community across the country, Mufti assured his party men that the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir — the only Muslim-majority state in the country — was a guarantee to the Muslims of the nation.
“This alliance will serve as a guarantee to the Muslims of the whole nation,” Mufti told his party men.
Mehbooba Mufti, in her address, said the party was supreme and she gave a clear message to the party ministers that they would have to deliver.
“Their (ministers) performance will be put to scrutiny every year and those who are not performing will have to face the consequences,” she told her party leaders.
Two senior PDP leaders Tariq Hameed Karra and Muzaffar Baig did not attend the meeting. Both leaders have been silent and even hostile to the party leadership.
