'Our Government Alienating People,' Says PDP Leader Muzaffar Baig

Srinagar: Muzaffar Hussain Baig, a top People's Democratic Party leader, has warned that the Jammu and Kashmir government run by his party in coalition with the BJP is "creating mistrust, alienation and cynicism" in the state.

Mr Baig, who was the first to support the PDP's alliance with the BJP, an ideological opposite, told NDTV that he now fears the way the PDP-led coalition government is functioning will "lead to its (PDP's) annihilation."

Last week, ahead of a joint rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Srinagar, Mr Baig had written a letter to PM Modi on "rising intolerance in the country and failure of PDP-BJP alliance."

To NDTV Mr Baig, a parliamentarian, said that his letter was suggestive rather than critical. "They must realise that initial hope was that this combination can achieve greater solidarity, social and political. I'm sorry to say (that) today there is greater mistrust between Hindus and Muslims in the state," said Mr Baig, who is also a former deputy chief minister of the state.

"Today uppermost in the minds of people of Jammu and Kasmir is not just bread and butter but whether Muslims as a minority will be safe even in a Muslim majority state," he said.

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Mr Baig said that he thought that PM Modi and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would send out a message (in the Srinagar rally) that communalism of any hue would not be tolerated but was left disappointed. "Our workers feel terribly disappointed. We went to people with a certain agenda and that Agenda is gone," he said.  
On the Bihar election results, the PDP leader said PM Modi should be happy over the results. "I think PM Modi should be happy that despite the view that he is very authoritarian there is still space for political difference of opinion," he said.

 

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