National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress and the BJP for “playing villains to democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, nurtured and sustained by Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah over the years.”
Leading party leaders and workers in paying homage to Sheikh Abdullah on his 113th birth anniversary at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan, Rana said: “The Congress made repeated assaults by conspiring against democratically elected governments in 1953 and 1984, to quote a few, in a bid to weaken democracy in Jammu & Kashmir and the BJP’s recent dubious role will also go as a bad chapter in the annals of democratic history of Jammu and Kashmir”.
He said the conspiracies have all along failed and the National Conference has, in fact, emerged stronger after every political assault due to support of the people in all the three regions of the State.
“Now that the elections are round the corner, National Conference under the leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah will go with renewed strength to the people and shall seek mandate for a strong and stable majority government in the State”, he said, adding that the people want a single-party government as dispensations with crutches cannot satiate their political, developmental and economic aspirations.
Urging the cadre to gear up for the elections, Rana said emergence of a strong National Conference will steer out the state to peace, prosperity and development.
He cautioned against conspiracies to divide the people on religious, regional and caste lines and said maintaining the unity and single entity of Jammu and Kashmir will be a befitting tribute to Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
He emphasized the crucial need of strengthening and sustaining the time tested unity, saying no society will progress if its foundations are laid on myopic considerations.
“This (secular bonding) is the spirit which has all along guided National Conference”, he said while recalling the cherished slogan of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh Itehad raised by Sher-e-Kashmir during most turbulent times.
Earlier, senior leaders and the party workers paid floral tributes to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and pledged to work for steering Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as peaceful, progressive and a politically stable state, which was the dream nurtured by the tallest of the tall leaders of the time all his life.
The senior leaders paid their respectful homage to the architect of Naya Jammu and Kashmir and recalled his contribution in overall transformation of the State.
The highlight of the day was a seminar on ‘The Legacy of Sher-e-Kashmir’, held for the first time at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan, in which young speakers dwelt on various facets of the life, political struggle, sacrifices and role of Baba-e-Quom in laying strong edifice of Jammu and Kashmir with focus on politico-economic empowerment and emancipation.