Coalition govt in J&K is bad experience: Omar

Jammu: Former Chief Minister and National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said that coalition government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a bad experience.

Pleading for a single party government in Jammu and Kashmir, keeping in view the challenges and magnitude of problems faced to the people, Mr Abdullah said that experiment of coalitions has not worked well in the state.

''In fact, the coalition culture has failed in various parts of the country as well and in a state like Jammu and Kashmir, a stable and strong dispensation was of paramount importance to steer it out of the mess created during the past nearly four years,'' Mr Abdullah said at a function here this evening organised to welcome Peoples’ Democratic Party General Secretary and former IAS officer Mehboob Iqbal and Dr Shahid Mougal, President Bhaderwah Municipal Council, along with their large number of associates into National Conference.

Mr Abdullah said the people, dejected by PDP-BJP’s misrule during over three years, are yearning for early elections to send out a terse message to the Centre about its misadventure by thrusting an insensitive and anti-poor government upon the state.

He referred to the massive support and goodwill towards National Conference in the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and exuded confidence that the party will give a stable and responsive government for fulfilling peoples’ urges and aspirations.

Referring to prominent political leaders joining National Conference, Mr Omar decried the statement of PDP President Ms Mufti, describing her party’s quitting leaders as garbage and said this speaks volumes about lowest depths of political discourse.

He said large scale desertions in the PDP are reflective of the anger among people for the miseries caused to them during the past three and half years. He also referred to Ms Mufti’s observations about the BJP and its central leaders and said when in power she used to walk extra miles in praising Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, claiming that he was offering all assistance to the state even without asking.

“Now Ms Mufti is seeing everything bad in the BJP, in whose company her government inflicted scars and bruises to the public psyche, which are hard to be filled”, the former Chief Minister said and reiterated commitment of the National Conference in serving the people single-mindely if given the mandate. He said Ms Mehbooba’s ‘toffee and milk tag to youngsters of the Valley’ is still haunting the people.

He also took the BJP head-on for neglecting development and alienating the people of the State. He said disillusionment with the BJP is so grave that even its MP from Leh and several corporators in the LAHDC have deserted it.