The “special status” of Jammu and Kashmir was always tampered with whenever the National Conference remained out of power in the state, the party’s president Farooq Abdullah and vice-president Omar Abdullah said Wednesday, and urged the people to remain “united in protecting Articles 35-A and 370”.
Addressing party workers in Batamaloo, Farooq said “we have to remain united to protect J&K’s identity”.
He said the choice of the people in the forthcoming assembly elections “will decide our future”.
“J&K is faced with a critical situation. We are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. At this time, we have to show unity amongst ourselves to illustrate how passionate we are about our identity,” he said, according to a National Conference statement issued here.
Asserting that there is no substitute to democracy “in which each life matters”, Farooq said: “People are yearning for development and peace. I am sure that with Omar Abdullah at the forefront of the government, the state will be bequeathed with much-needed peace and stability.”
“Safeguarding the interests of the state and its people forms the core of National Conference,” he said.
Farooq also paid obeisance at the shrine of Shah WaliSahab (RA) and prayed for peace and prosperity of the state, the statement read.
Farooq said his father Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah “always wanted India and Pakistan to live in bonhomie and we always wanted all the traditional road connections to be resumed for the benefit of divided families.”
“National Conference has always been a votary of peace between India and Pakistan,” he said, and sought support of people for its former MLA from BatamalooIrfan Shah, in the upcoming elections.
OMAR IN BEERWAH
The state’s special status was tampered with whenever NC remained away from the power corridors of the state, the NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said Wednesday.
Addressing party workers at a daylong convention in Beerwah constituency, he said “non-NC governments in J&K have proved detrimental to the special status of the state. The basic structure of the state was entirely obliterated by the opportunistic forces that got a field day because of our absence”.
“From 1953 to 1974, 37 amendments were made to the state constitution making a pale shadow of what it used to be before 1953,” he said, according to a statement issued by NC.
Omar said the “very identity of our state is facing an onslaught from all sides and the severity of the situation demands a strong mandated government of National Conference that will put up a strong front for safeguarding our special position”. “Prime Minister NarendraModi insulted late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in an open public platform. This would have impossible in a scenario if PDP had the numbers to run the government on its own. We have never seen such a thing happening in other states, where a sitting chief minister was publicly humiliated,” he said, adding that the “primary reason for this was a fractured mandate, compounded with the fact that other alliance partners are always bound by central whip of party, which severely affects the working and maneuverability of government”.
“Coalition governments in J&K have proved detrimental to state’s interests and that the need of the hour is to have a strong nucleus to carry forward the agenda of peace, development and reconciliation,” he said.
Omar asserted that National Conference is the “only party with a clear roadmap to address internal and external dimensions of J&K”.