SRINAGAR: In what would amount to a bomb shell, Tariq Hameed Karra, the founder member of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) who recently resigned from the party, Thursday made revelations about the wheelings and dealing of the BJP towards the PDP.
Karra, who also resigned from the Parliament asserted in an interview with Kashmir Observer that, “while Mr Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was still alive, BJP approached me and asked me to come out of PDP with 20 members while offering me support of 25 members to form the government. That was to dethrone Mr Mufti Sayeed. I refused the offer point blank”.
Karra added, “The second time they approached me was during that intervening period when Mehbooba Mufti was in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the alliance or not. I was approached by one of the highest people in the system and the BJP hierarchy that you take over. I said I would not. They offered me all kinds of sops they could have. When I said I wouldn’t be willing to join hands with 'fascist hands', they even got angry. I have a witness for that for both occasions, that too a Kashmiri.
Alleging that he was offered money to do this Karra stated, “Again I was offered tons of money. I said look at you, on one side you’re negotiating with Mehbooba Mufti and on the other, you’re pulling the rug from under her feet”.
Questioning BJP’s hypocrisy, Karra stated that facing a hard choice he settled for Mehbooba and alerted her to the BJP’s designs: “I said to them, if you’re trying to do any misadventure by imposing anybody else on Kashmir, then you’re a doing a blunder. So looking into their designs, I had to make a choice between a lesser danger and a bigger danger. To my political understanding, Mehbooba Mufti was a lesser danger than the plot they had in their mind. That was one of the major factors for me to come forward, hold the hand of Mehbooba ji which she requested for. I underline it, the hand which she requested for. She came to me and we had a long chat there which it is not ethical for me to reveal but the only motive for me to come forward was to counter those RSS backed moves of planting somebody else which would have been a bigger danger for Kashmir”, Karra, told Kashmir Observer.
In terms of the alliance and its failure, Karra stated, “Everything from the day one went wrong. The alliance with the BJP was a wrong decision. I wouldn’t have been with the BJP at all and hypothetically speaking, I would have come out of the BJP immediately. There was no big science behind it to predict the dangerous consequences of the Burhan fallout”.
Elaborating upon the current and impasse and a possible resolution Karra asserted, “There’re two aspects to it: Political and administrative. On the ground, we’ve witnessing administrative failure and the vicious circle we’re caught in. We have to have one set of measures for it and for the political aspect of it, we have to have other set of measures. To my understanding, the first and the foremost thing is to douse the anger among the masses.
Karra further stated that , “Jingoism, provocative statements and the challenges being thrown are oxygen to this whole thing. If this government goes, it would bring down the anger of the people because in that case, the people would have some sense of achievement that at least we have brought down the perpetrators. I have been given an impression that even my resignation had a cooling effect.
Karra recently resigned from the basic membership of the PDP and his parliamentary seat as well.
Referring to the irrelevance of mainstream politics in Kashmir, Karra said, “Today, every mainstream party and politician has become irrelevant. Had the nature of that buffer been saved, it would not have been what it is today”
Karra, however asserted trenchantly that the PDP’s ideological space still held: “That said I would add that the philosophy of PDP is still relevant. It may not be in the form of PDP. It may not be in form of “ABCD’ but the PDP’s ideological space is still relevant”
Karra went further and attributed the current unrest to the alliance between the PDP and the BJP, “In the first instance, I would like to say that the basis for today’s unrest was laid by the PDP’s alliance with BJP which was supplemented by misgovernance. I have said it earlier also during that period.”
Karra warned powers that be in India that if Hinduisation of Indian polity is not stopped, the day is not far when you’d see India disintegrating.
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