Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra calls all-party meeting on Friday
Meanwhile, ally Shiv Sena criticised the BJP for pulling out of the government after ‘spreading anarchy in the Kashmir Valley’.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra has called an all-party meeting in Srinagar on Friday evening to discuss the situation in the state after Governor’s rule was implemented, PTI reported on Thursday. The state was put under Governor’s rule after the Bharatiya Janata Party quit the coalition in the state and Chief Minister Mehbooba, of the Peoples Democratic Party, resigned.
Several parties have criticised the BJP for their decision, including the Shiv Sena, its alliance partner in Maharashtra, which has accused it of pulling out of the government after allegedly spreading anarchy in the state.
The Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, accused the BJP of forming the government with the Peoples Democratic Party out of greed for power, and compared its exit to the departure of the British from India in 1947.
“The BJP opted out of power after spreading anarchy in the Valley,” the party alleged. “The situation has never before deteriorated to this extent, rivers of blood have never flown so extensively, and never have so many soldiers lost their lives before.”
The Shiv Sena said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims in the run-up to the 2014 General Elections about dealing with terrorism in Kashmir and Pakistan with a “56-inch chest” have fallen flat. The party claimed that people in the state “feel the [previous] Congress-National Conference government was better”. It questioned the BJP about its promise to ensure the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the state and the repealing of Article 370 of Constitution, which grants special status to the state.
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah termed the breakup of the PDP-BJP alliance a brilliant fixed match, and accused the two parties of scripting their parting of ways to perfection. The former chief minister called for immediate dissolution of the state assembly. Keeping it in suspended animation encourages brokers and horse-trading, he claimed.