Srinagar: BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma asserted that the people of Jammu and Kashmir want peace and development as they look towards taking their state forward on the path of progress. He said that the new PDP-BJP coalition government would try to fulfil these aspirations through good governance by following its common minimum programme. As it undertakes efforts to put the state on the path of development, the new government will also ensure that J&K is brought into the national mainstream, Mr Sharma said.
Apart from Mr Syeed, 24 other members of his council of ministers also took oath with him, marking the entry of the BJP, with 11 ministers, for the first time in the state government.
The BJP, in a clear departure from its earlier stand, has agreed to maintain status quo on Article 370 in the common agenda for governance.
The common minimum programme of the two parties, “Agenda of the Alliance”, also promises to examine the need for denotifying “disturbed areas” in the state to enable the Centre take a final view on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
Governor Narendra Nath Vohra administered oath to Mr Sayeed and others, including 16 Cabinet-rank ministers and eight ministers of state. The BJP’s Nirmal Kumar Singh is deputy Chief Minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the ceremony and soon took to micro-blogging site Twitter to say: “Witnessed the oath-taking ceremony of Shri Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Congratulations and best wishes to him & his team.”
He termed the PDP-BJP government as a “historic opportunity to fulfil the aspirations of the people of J&K and take the state to new heights of progress.”
The 79-year-old PDP patron’s swearing-in as the 12th Chief Minister brought to an end 49 days of Governor’s rule imposed after the resignation of National Conference working president Omar Abdullah as CM after being voted out in the Assembly elections in November-December 2014.
Others who took oath as ministers are Abdul Rehman Veeri, Javed Mustafa Mir, Abdul Haq Khan, Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Haseeb A. Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari, Moulvi Imran Raza Ansari and Naeem Akhtar Andrabi (all PDP) and Dr Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash, Chowdhary Lal Singh, Bali Bhagat and Sukhnandan Chowdhury (all BJP). Former separatist and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone was also sworn in as a Cabinet-rank minister from the BJP quota.
Criticising Mr Sayeed for his remarks on Pak, Congress leader and former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad said that BJP should explain the position of its ally.
“This is totally untrue that Pakistan or militant groups made the atmosphere conducive. “First, the credit goes to the people of J-K; second to our forces who maintained a tight vigil on the border day and night; third to EC and, above all, to Indian democracy,” he said.
“It was less a swearing-in ceremony, more a national executive committee meeting of the BJP held in Jammu,” Mr Azad added taking a dig at the PDP-BJP alliance. He had said earlier that all the decision of the PDP-BJP alliance would now on be “taken at Nagpur”, where the RSS headquarters is located.
Barring the state Congress chief Saif-ud-din Soz, none of the Congress leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony.
“Since for BJP, it is an era of conversions, the PDP leadership has to be careful lest there is a political conversion from PDP to the BJP,” he said.
CPM leader Mohd Yusuf Tarigami said the two parties had “something to hide” as they did not come out with their Common Minimum Programme before the swearing-in ceremony.
