A day after the BJP withdrew support, the PDP Wednesday said it was ready to pull out from the government even earlier but did not do that because the party did not want to get the tag of “traitors” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “We are happy that we didn’t do it (pull out from the government),” former state minister and PDP leader Naeem Akhtar told The Indian Express. “We could have pulled out before they (BJP) pulled out, but that would have earned a bad name for people of J&K. People in India are generally sceptical about the people of Kashmir - they would have called us traitors.” Akhtar said his party did not want to create an impression that Kashmiris are only “fair weather” friends. He said the PDP also didn’t want to let down people of the state. “In the 1990s, the Farooq Abdullah government resigned and what followed was mayhem - there were massacres and gross human rights violations. In the absence of a civilian government, people had nowhere to go; they felt betrayed,” Akhtar said. Akhtar said that the PDP stood by its “own political ideology”, which was also crafted into the Agenda of Alliance of the coalition government. Another senior PDP leader said the party didn’t want to annoy the BJP either. “We know we may have to again join hands with them tomorrow. We have little options: the Congress or BJP,” he said. “Even BJP knows that. If you have seen their language, it wasn’t harsh against us.” In her post-resignation address to the media, Mehbooba Mufti didn’t criticise BJP and instead focused on achievements of her party during in the three years.
