Former chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah Tuesday slammed the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti for talking about protection of state’s special status, saying she couldn’t implement an order that made hoisting of the state flag atop government buildings mandatory.
Omar said Mehbooba revoked the order two days after itsissuance after facing pressure from her alliance partner, the BJP.
“Mehbooba’s alliance with the BJP could not protect ourstudents, traders, who, after being harassed in different cities of India, wereforced to leave,” Omar said.
He said even Prime Minister Narendra Modi “kept silence”over the issue and talked about it only after few weeks.
“Our students and traders faced wrath from the BJP and RSworkers. They were forced to leave different cities after being thrashed. Itwas the Sikh community, and not the Narendra Modi-led government, the alliancepartner of PDP, which saved our students and traders. The Sikh community openeddoors of Gurdwaras for Kashmiris and protected our students,” Omar said.
Expressing his resentment over what he called “an atmosphereof hatred being created against the neighbouring country Pakistan”, Omar saidhe has for the first time witnessed that on the Pakistan Day which is beingcelebrated every year at Delhi by the Pakistan Embassy people, the guests werenot allowed to go in and were stopped at the entry of the venue.
He said an atmosphere of war was created throughout thecountry and TV studios were used for the war hysteria.
“However, little do they know the consequences of a war. Itis people of the state who are worst affected due to the country’s acrimonywith Pakistan. They should ask people living along the line of control about arethe fallouts of such an animosity between the two countries,” Omar said,addressing a gathering in Baramulla.
The good that was achieved during my stint as the chiefminister of Jammu and Kashmir was thrown into an abyss by the former PDP-BJPcoalition government, Omar said on Tuesday, and asserted that the state ofIndia’s affairs “bore the brunt of the imprudent policies of the NarendraModi-led BJP government”.
Addressing a public meeting at Khawajabagh, Baramulla, Omarsaid that there was a “marked difference in the security scenario” of the stateduring his tenure as the chief minister.
“However what good was accomplished in the state suffered asetback during the reign of the former BJP-PDP government. When I took over the state as its chiefminister, I remember how there used to be a gunman with every military convoyto manage the traffic. We then managed the situation and replaced the gun witha baton. Eventually, I took up the matter with the army officials and impressedupon them about the negative impact of having a military man (‘danda man’)flaunting a baton,” Omar said, according to a National Conference statement.
“Slowly and steadily the batons were snatched from themilitary men managing the fleet of military convoys. By 2014, the situation had improved to adegree that no person used to be present to manage the convoys”.
“Today”, Omar said,”we see forces thickly guarding every unit area of our highways. The privatetransport is not allowed to ply near the army vehicular fleet, while othervehicles aren’t allowed to drive within 50 meters of a convoy. This is what theBJP-PDP has done to our sense of security, our highways. Today it takes twohours to reach Baramulla from Srinagar. Such is the situation”.
Slamming certain sections of Indian media for “drumming thebeats of war”, Omar said: “Those who speak of war sitting in TV studios don’tknow the repercussions of war. It is the people of our state who have to bearthe brunt of tense situation between India and Pakistan. It is the people ofour state who directly come in the line of fire between India and Pakistan.Those pitching for war don’t suffer from the consequences of it”.
Hitting out at the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for herassertion that she will protect the “special status” of the state, Omar said:”How can PDP and its president save the special status of the state? Look at her stint in power. The GST bill wehave been resisting was implanted by her. The new tax regime has affectedhoteliers, taxi-drivers, craftsmen, and other marginal traders. We hadcautioned her about the implementation of the GST but she didn’t heed ourpleas”.
“There has been a steep increase in the price of cooking gascylinders while poor families find it very difficult to refill such cylinders.How can PDP protect our special status? It was the PDP that destroyed thefinancial autonomy of our state?” Omar alleged.
“Now it is for us to decide whether we want to let thesituation continue as it is. Our children are being attacked across India. Thetourist industry too is in shambles. Our kids were attacked and intimidated inUttrakhand, Punjab and other places. We unfortunately didn’t see any action orword of condemnation coming from the Prime Minister for 10 days,” Omar said.”For the past four years, we have seen our special position being attacked. Dowe desire to see our kids being intimidated? If not, then we have to make surethat BJP-PDP is given a befitting reply in the forthcoming LS elections”.
“The work (of securing Kashmiris) which was to be done bythe Prime Minister was undertaken by our Sikh brothers, who came out andcarried the rescue operations. They secured the lives of our youth studyingoutside J&K,” Omar said.
“Do we want such people in power who intimidate us? Do wewant such people in power who couldn’t represent our aspirations? Do we wantsuch people again in power who couldn’t protect the sanctity of our state flag?It was in her (Mehbooba’s) tenure when an order was passed on hoisting stateflag atop government buildings, but the order was repealed by her just two daysafter its issuance,” he said.
In a frontal attack on Mehbooba, Omar asked what action wastaken by her on alleged issuance of fake state subjects.
“The case was brought to Mehbooba’s notice by my colleagueand former minister in her cabinet. In a bid to save her government and chairs,she didn’t take any action on the issue. Can she be trusted on the protectionof state’s special status? On everyconceivable parameter, she failed. Now she is vowing to protect the specialstatus of state despite the fact that much damage was done to it in hertenure”.
Omar also slammed the “divisive agenda of polarisation ofelectorate on ethic and other prejudices”.
“Such a trend will prove harmful to the unity of the state.We don’t ask for votes on religious, ethnic considerations; our candidate forBaramulla Muhammad Akbar Lone is the most appropriate candidate for theconstituency and will leave no stone unturned to raise issues concerning ourstate in the parliament,” Omar said. “Now it is imperative for all of us tosend him to the parliament with a resounding victory, with a huge margin. It ishe who will fight for our special status and other interests of state”.
Meanwhile, Omar addressed a meeting of segment in-charges atparty headquarters Nawa-e-Subha.
He asserted that the state is “facing overt and covertonslaught” on its special status from “various quarters”.
“The need of the hour is to have such parliamentarians fromKashmir who can laboriously work inside and outside the parliament for thedefense of state’s integrity and unique character,” he said.
The state witnessed unrelenting attacks on its institutions,its financial autonomy and an unprecedented assail on its constitutionalstatus, he said.
“The embrace of PDP with BJP opened the floodgates of statefor all forces which have traditionally shown abhorrence of the state’s specialcharacter. Every walk of life here in our state bears the brunt of PDP’s tie upwith BJP,” he said. “The forces which are hostile to our unique constitutionalstatus are contriving hard to destroy the constitutional safeguard—the specialcharacter of our state”.
“Nonetheless”, Omar said, “the elections to LS afford us anopportunity to send credible voices to parliament which can forcefully andassertively work both inside and outside the parliament for guarding theidentity and integrity of our state. Such voices can pursue the case of granting autonomy to the state”.
Omar urged the party functionaries to “remain vigilant ofthe machinations of the RSS-BJP and its cronies in the state”.