The National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah Thursday blamed the Peoples Democratic Party for “throwing the state into the present crisis”.
“The PDP leaders are responsible for the governor’s rule,for the new wave of militancy which we are witnessing after 2014,” he said,addressing an election rally in Rafaiabad area of northern Baramulla district.
Slamming the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for “pretending toprotect state’s special status”, Omar said she “could not raise her voice toprotect the honour and dignity of her late father, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed”.
“She forgot how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during hisaddress at Sher-e-Kashmir stadium in Srinagar said ‘I don’t require anysuggestion for talks with Pakistan because I have a better understanding ofJammu and Kashmir’, in response to Sayeed’s plea for resumption of talks withIslamabad.”
“Why didn’t they (PDP) object to such humiliation despitebeing coalition partners of the BJP?” Omar asked.
Omar said when the former chief minister Sayeed wasstruggling for life at a Srinagar hospital, “the Prime Minister didn’t visithim even once”.
“This should have been an eye-opener for Mehbooba Mufti, butshe could not understand this. How will Mehbooba Mufti fight for the politicalrights of the people of the state when she could not garner respect and dignityfor his father from the prime minister whose party was in alliance with thePDP?” Omar said.
He questioned why Mehbooba Mufti and her party leaders “keptmum” when anti-Article 35A case was filed in the Supreme Court.
He said it was National Conference that spoke in the stateassembly saying an attempt was underway to fiddle with the state’sconstitutional identity.
“But PDP did not raise its voice as its leaders werehand-in-glove with the BJP, enjoying power in the corridors of power,” Omarsaid.
Accusing Mehbooba of “watching as mute spectator” how youthsof Kashmir were “subjected to hardships”, Omar said: “Why didn’t Mehbooba Muftiraise her voice when a voter from Budgam area was tied to a military jeep?”
“Why Mehbooba watched as a mute spectator when ourhighly-qualified youths were picking up guns?” he said.
Omar said Kashmir is a political issue and its politicalsolution “cannot be snatched on gunpoint”.
“Kashmir issue will be resolved only through talks. It wasNC which initiated talks with Hizbul Mujahideen commanders and with theHurriyat Conference. However, the PDP-BJP government did nothing in thisdirection and instead brought miseries to the people,” the former CM said.
He said ever since the BJP-PDP coalition government wasformed, Kashmir youths were pushed to the wall.
“Slapping of Public Safety Act, arrests and use of NIAbecame order of the day. Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is summoned toDelhi in a case filed in 2017 when Mehbooba was the chief minister and now shesays NIA is resorting to atrocities. You brought NIA here (to Kashmir) andhanded over J&K police to them saying NIA will assist the state police,”Omar said.
“How can people forget when a PDP representative in theparliament said Kashmiri youth are picking up gun and sacrificing lives for apair of kurta-pajamas. Such was the desperation of PDP to remain in power,”Omar said.
He said “we have to see how to get the state out of thismess”.
The National Conference will remove the Public Safety Actfrom the law books and ensure its misuse is stopped, Omar said.
“All those cases filed after 2015 against youths will bereviewed if NC comes to power,” he said, assuring that NC will “restore the originalposition of Kashmir and will strive for that”.