People of Jammu and Kashmir should elect those in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections who will ensure that their voice is heard in the parliament, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Tuesday.
Addressing a delegation of party functionaries and workersfrom Khan Sahab, Khrew and other areas, Farooq said: “Now that the trumpet ofthe LS elections has been blown, the National Conference is all geared up forthe elections. People of J&K want a credible voice to represent theiraspirations in the top-most house of the country. Our party is the onlycredible voice of all regions of J&K. It is the National Conference that iscredited with establishing a welfare state here”.
“The people of Kashmir remember PDP for unleashing countlessmiseries on the state and its people,” Farooq said.
“The PDP notwithstanding its pretentious anti-BJP campaignjoined hands with the same BJP after 2014 elections and what followed was anunambiguous instance of political opportunism. The treacherous role played bythe PDP and its leadership is an open secret. Mufti Muhammad Sayeed as aloyalist of late G M Sadiq played a pivotal role in destroying the status ofour state,” Farooq said, according to a statement issued here.
“What was left of our special status, Sayeed took it uponhimself in his stint as chief minister in 2002 and 2014. In 2002, in a majorassault on the Muslims of J&K, Sayeed played with the working autonomy ofthe Muslim Waqf board,” Farooq alleged. “In 2014, late Mufti allied with aparty which is openly threatening the minorities in India. Now theresponsibility rests on people to choose between forces inimical to state’sspecial status and those who have lent immense sacrifices for the protection ofthe unique identity of our state.”
Mocking PDP’s slogan ‘goli say nahi, baat banegi boli say’,Farooq said: “By facilitating the entry of BJP into the state, the PDP set freethe forces which are inimical to the state’s institutions and fiddling with ourworking autonomy. Never has Kashmir witnessed such violence as was unleashedduring the reign of BJP and PDP. The BJP-PDP rule witnessed erosion of state’sinstitutions. Besides, what was left of our identity in the form of financialautonomy was also surrendered by the PDP by implementing GST in J&K,”Farooq said.
“Now it is up to the people to discern between the ones whostand for their rights and who trampled them. However, people have made it apoint to show such forces as are inimical to the state their right place. Inthe end it is the people whose resolve will prevail,” he said.