Jammu, Publish Date: Mar 13 2018
Former Minister of State for Finance and MLA Udhampur, Pawan Gupta slammed People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for “succumbing under pressure of separatists” to remove Dr Haseeb Drabu from the council of ministers.
Reacting on the removing of the Finance Minister from the cabinet over his remarks that Kashmir “isn’t a political issue” which has embarrassed the party, the independent MLA said, “I had listened to the entire speech of Dr Drabu. He spoke reality and honestly tried to project the real picture of the state”.
Gupta said, “Though it’s the prerogative of the party to drop or get anyone into council of ministers but if Drabu has been removed on the ground of his speech in Delhi, he just became victim of separatism, anti-national and dividing forces,”
“His (Drabu) statement at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi should be taken in right perspective but unfortunately PDP succumbed to the pressure of separatists and sack the competent minister from the council,” said Gupta, who has served as junior minister of Finance during the first tenure of PDP-BJP government under late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
“Instead of removing Drabu, PDP should introspect and revisit its policy, which instigates alienation among Kashmiri,” Drabu’s former colleague said.
