She also warned that any change in Article 35 (A) of the Constitution, which gives a special state provision to Jammu and Kashmir and is being debated in the Supreme Court would not be in favour of the people living in the Valley and would invite repercussions.
She did not spell it out but spoke of more cross-border contacts between the people of divided Jammu and Kashmir. "It is important to replace it with a better idea", she said at an event organised by the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals titled "Understanding Kashmir" here", Mehbooba had said. "The circumstances did not give us enough time to work on those things".
"Are we ready to do that?"
"The basic question is how much is the idea of India ready to accommodate the idea of Kashmir?" "You are weakening them". "If we want that the closed roads in Jammu & Kashmir open, Pakistan's positive contribution is very necessary", she added. The leader also asserted that for the last 70 years, J&K has been dependent more on administrative measures or security measures to tackle the situation, but no solution to the problem has been achieved as of yet.
The plea said the Jammu and Kashmir government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370 which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non-residents (women married to non-Kashmiri) who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job, joining any professional college run by the state government, or voting in the local elections.
Mufti, who heads a PDP-BJP coalition in J&K, said mainstream parties such as the National Conference and her own party risk the lives of their workers who stand up and carry the national flag in Kashmir. We did support them (NIA).
She said taking the path of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by engaging in the dialogue process with Pakistan was the only way forward.
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Referring to the attack on Amarnath yatris, Mehbooba said entire Kashmir had condemned it proving the secular credentials of Kashmiris.
On the recent arrest of separatists in Kashmir, Mufti stated that NIA arrests are "administrative measures, and administrative measures only contain the issue - they do not resolve it".
Downplaying suggestions that the State government had failed in implementing the Agenda of Alliance, she said the failure was also due to law and order problems.
"One needs to look at the context in which Mehbooba Mufti said this".
The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
"This (NIA raids and arrests) is not the real problem but resolving the issue (Kashmir) is", the CM said.
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