Dulat's remarks about Late Mufti not significant, statement about Farooq quite serious: Mehbooba

Jammu, Apr 21: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti Monday hit back at the chief minister Omar Abdullah stating former RAW chief's "statement about Dr Farooq Abdullah vis-a-vis Article 370 abrogation" was a very serious issue while his (Dulat's) remarks about her father were about certain smaller issues.

Mehbooba, while addressing a press conference at the party office, said, "A S Dulat's remarks that Dr Farooq Abdullah was disturbed about the BJP not taking him into confidence before abrogating Article 370 and he (Farooq) said he would have helped them (BJP) for achieving this objective through J&K Legislative Assembly - are very serious in nature."

"Dulat, as everyone knows, is very close to Farooq Sahib. He has not made such remarks to harm the interests of Farooq Sahib. He has stated so to bridge the gap between BJP and him (Farooq). He (Dulat) wants to bring them closer. But as far as Omar Sahib's remarks about Mufti (Muhammad Sayeed) Sahib as mentioned in Dulat's earlier book are concerned, they are very small issues - not as significant as Farooq's statement about Article 370," she said.

She said that on this issue, Dr Farooq and the National Conference should give an explanation to the people of J&K. "They should clear the air as to what he and Omar were doing with the Prime Minister on August 3, 2019," PDP president said.

With regard to statehood, she said that it was BJP's narrative.

"National Conference is following that narrative of BJP. It has been committed by the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister. What has not been committed is - Article 370. We had thought that NC with 50 MLAs would talk about it. But they (NC leadership) don't want to mention it at all. This is a matter of concern for us," Mehbooba said.