Ram Madhav challenges PDP, NC to fight elections together

Ram Madhav

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Ram Madhav withdrew his comments of Pakistan hand in the proposed alliance between the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir. He, however, in full sarcasm threw the ball in NC and PDP's camps suggesting that they should contest the next election together.

He tweeted, ¿Just landed@Aizawl n saw this. Now that you deny any external pressure I take back my comment, but, now that u proved it was genuine love btw NC n PDP that prompted a failed govt formation attempt, u should fight next elections 2gether,¿ Madhav tweeted.

Madhav's took back his words following NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah's open challenge to the BJP leader to prove the allegation. Abdullah tweeted, "No, misplaced attempts at humour won¿t work. You HAVE claimed my party has been acting at the behest of Pakistan. I dare you to prove it! Place the evidence of your allegation of NC boycott of ULB polls at Pak behest in public domain. It¿s an open challenge to you & your Govt."

Madhav and Abdullah continued to take on each other through a series of tweets throughout the day. In one of the tweets, Madhav wrote: ¿Just take it in your stride @OmarAbdullah Not questioning your patriotism at all. But d sudden love between NC n PDP nd hurry to form government leads to many suspicions n political comments. Not to offend u¿.

To this, Abdullah retorted: "I dare you @rammadhavbjp ji to prove your allegation. You have RAW, NIA & IB at your command (CBI too is your parrot) so have the guts to place evidence in the public domain. Either prove this or be man enough to apologize. Don¿t practice shoot & scoot politics."

In the midst of the political slugfest, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti too expressed her anguish at the "baseless allegations". She too took to her Tweeter handle and posted several tweets questioning the BJP leader's sensitivities. She said, "Shocked to see baseless allegations against mainstream parties in JK following dictates from Pakistan levelled by @rammadhavbjp ji."

In another tweet, she reacted, "Sad to see what the political discourse of our country has been reduced to. How does one define a party's nationalistic credentials? Nationalistic and patriotic only if you are with the Centre and Pakistan sponsored and anti nationalistic otherwise?"

Having staked claim to form a government with the support of Congress and arch-rival National Conference (NC), Mehbooba threw her hat into the ring raising the debate of why PDP and NC's credibility was not questioned when they were in alliance with the BJP. "Both PDP and NC have been allies of BJP at some point. Strange that our credentials werent questioned then. But just because our MLAs had enough integrity to stand up to your failed attempts of defection, they are now anti nationalistic? India is a great country and democracy is a battle of ideas. Lets not make a mockery of those very institutions and people," she added.

She also explained the logic behind PDP's decision to form an alliance with the BJP emphasising that it was to change the "pernicious mindset". She tweeted, "Undoubtedly Pakistan has an impact on the situation in J&K. But its upto our country to change that from negative to positive and tread the path that was taken by Vajpayee ji."

In a spring of surprise on Wednesday, rivals PDP, NC along with Congress confirmed that they stitched up an alliance to form a government in the fragile state which has been under Governor's Rule since June following BJP pulling the strings and ending its ruling with alliance partner PDP.

As they went into a huddle to cobble up numbers, Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly. The move came hours after Mehbooba sent a letter to him staking claim.

In the fast-moving development, as the three political parties were setting the chess board, BJP-backed People's Conference chief Sajjad Lone also staked claim to form the government.

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