NC gets back to work after a year

After witnessing a political hiatus of more than one year, National Conference has of late geared up its political activities with party president Dr Farooq Abdullah meeting 16 party leaders at his Gupkar Road residence during the last three days.

The first in the series of three meetings was on Thursday, during which the NC president interacted with four senior NC leaders and later five others on Friday.

   

After meeting the NC leaders, who have been either under detention or house arrest for over one year, Dr Abdullah told media persons that “these meetings will be the first step to reassure that the leaders able to travel to my residence have been set free in the true sense.”

As per a National Conference spokesperson, in the third meeting on Saturday, Dr Abdullah interacted with Dr. Bashir Veeri, Irfan Shah, Aga Mehmood, Muhammad Khalil Bandh, Saifudin Bhat, Abdul Majid Larmi and Hilal Lone.

“All these party functionaries were under detention or house arrest for over a year.”

An NC leader told the Greater Kashmir that more than “discussing political course of action the meeting was an emotional reunion.”

“Dr Abdullah is a changed person and he literally cried in the meeting. He clearly told us that he feels let down by the decisions of August 5, 2019. We are overwhelmed by this meeting,” the NC leader said.

“Dr Farooq told us that he is clearly not after power or chair. He told us that we will put up a fight to get back the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, be in a constitutional manner or a democratic electoral process,” the NC leader said. He said Dr Farooq also discussed his “forthright” approach towards the central government and “is firm that he will stay strong.”

“Doctor saheb said many individuals from the centre are calling him to Delhi but he has been reminding them of the days when he had to take permission to even visit a doctor in Srinagar,” the NC leader said.

It may be recalled that in a press conference held after chairing the first party meeting on Thursday, Dr Abdullah had said that NC “will announce its political agenda” only after culmination of his “batch-wise interactions” with the political leadership of the party. The three-day meetings which concluded on Saturday had been called by the NC president following his cognizance of the stand taken by the government in the high court in the habeas corpus matters filed by him and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah for setting free various leaders of the party who have been under detention or house arrest since August last year. “Being heedful of the prevailing circumstances, the party president had chosen to call all the incarcerated leaders in batches to meet him at his residence,” said an NC spokesman.

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