PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti Thursday stated that achieving genuine peace in Jammu and Kashmir requires the Centre to prioritize winning over the public’s sentiment.
Speaking in Baramulla, she emphasized that real prosperity cannot be achieved without the Centre making efforts to gain people’s trust and engaging in dialogue.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister expressed optimism that the Central government would soon recognize that dialogue is the only viable path forward. She argued that while force, through the deployment of the Army everywhere or the imposition of laws like AFSPA, PSA, and UAPA, can suppress people, it cannot win their hearts. For that, she stressed, dialogue is essential.
Mehbooba also explained that her party’s public interaction initiative, called ‘Kath Bath,’ is designed to listen to people’s grievances and alleviate their sense of helplessness. She noted that through this program, the PDP aims to address the despair and depression felt by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the Valley, following the 2019 revocation of Article 370 and the region’s division into two Union territories.
