Mehbooba snubs PM, won’t attend all-party meeting

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People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday threw a spanner in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first attempt to intervene in the Kashmir crisis by rejecting his appeal to attend Monday’s all-party meeting called by chief minister Omar Abdullah.
“What will you discuss with a chief minister who publicly admits he has lost credibility? Let him reestablish it,” Ms Mufti told reporters. She added while she was grateful to the Prime Minister and Union home minister P. Chidambaram for calling her up, her party’s decision to stay away from the meeting remained unchanged.
“It was painful for me to tell the Prime Minister that I can’t attend the meet because the state government was doing nothing on the ground. It did not think about taking anybody else into confidence before calling in the Army, and when the situation only worsened because of the government’s flawed decisions and actions, he (CM) seeks to discuss the issue at an all-party meeting,” she said.
Dr Singh had earlier called up the PDP leader and urged her to attend Monday’s all-party meeting.
The chief minister had on Saturday written to her, and also telephoned, requesting her to reconsider her party’s decision, but she refused to budge.
Ms Mehbooba appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene and end the crackdown and take measures to “scale down” the alienation of people here. “People are angry and you must first identify with their sorrows and miseries,” she said.
Union minister Farooq Abdullah, the chief minister’s father, meanwhile, called on governor N.N. Vohra at Raj Bhavan here on Sunday evening to discuss the law and order situation.
The chief minister earlier met legislators of the NC-Congress coalition to discuss the situation threadbare, where MLAs of both parties rallied behind him.
Curfew was, meanwhile, lifted in most areas of the Kashmir Valley, but the security forces continued with a security lockdown in parts of Srinagar, Sopore and Pulwama. There was no relaxation in Kakapora township in the south.