Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday warned Pakistan not to treat India’s humbleness as “weakness” and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he is a “true statesman”.
“Pakistan should understand that humbleness of India is not its weakness. Instead it is the real strength of the country,” Mehbooba said while addressing a function at Jammu University’s auditorium, here in connection with the launch of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
She said when everyone was talking about war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Narindra Modi proved that he is a true statesman with his statement.
“I congratulate Modi Ji. When there were talks of war, he told Pakistan let us jointly fight poverty and unemployment. This was incomparable,” Mehbooba said.
She said if former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have been at his place, he too would have used the same words. “He (Modi) handled the huge pressure whether it was from television or political parties”.
Taking a dig at Pakistan, Mehbooba said, “Pakistan should understand Modi’s message. Every time, they won’t get such a chance.”
She said Pakistan leadership and people should understand the motive of India and cooperate in eradicating poverty and unemployment.
Hailing Modi, she said there is no comparison to PM’s speech in which he asked people of Pakistan to help eradication poverty and unemployment.
“Our challenge is poverty. If we would not have been facing poverty and wars with Pakistan, we would have a developed country. We remained busy in fighting militancy, wars with Pakistan and border attacks,” he said.
The CM said that after Pathankot attack, Modi went to Lahore and then Uri took place.
“Pakistan would not get such chance in future,” she said.
On India boycotting SAARC summit to be held in Pakistan in November, Mehbooba said, “Pak mein SAARC hone wala tha, aur mujhe umeed thi ki PM ko wahan jaane ka mauka milega. Par kaise jaayein?Kin haalaat mein jaayein?(SAARC was to happen in Pakistan and I had hopes that our PM will get an opportunity to go there but how will he go? Under what circumstances will he go there?)
Justifying her party’s alliance with BJP, she said, from last two months attempts were made to disturb peace in the State but still people in Jammu maintained communal harmonay.
“I am thankful to the people of Jammu whether they are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians. This is the biggest achievement,” she said, adding that late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed always wanted to see united Jammu and Kashmir.
She said since Kashmir is shut from over two months, the traders in Jammu have also suffered losses.
Earlier, while addressing a function at SKICC, in Srinagar, she raised Indus Water Treaty issue.
“Today, many things are being talked about. There is a talk of Indus Water Treaty (IWT). We are facing losses on account of IWT. We should get compensation and we cannot ask Pakistan for that but our own country. Whatever we get, be it our power projects or anything, we should get,” she said.
“There have been so many wars, but IWT wasn’t touched because both the countries benefited from our resources, even as J and K suffered losses,” Mehbooba said.