Senior Peoples Democratic Party leader and former Parliamentarian, Dr Mehboob Beg, on Monday said that National Conference has no moral authority to lecture anyone over protection of Articles 370 and 35-A.
In a statement here Beg said, “Did Sheikh Sahab nothurriedly agree to take-over as Chief Minister and not ‘Wazir-e-azam’ despiteadvice to the contrary? Would Kashmir’s future not have been different had helistened to the counsel provided? He had the support and confidence of themasses to drive their future, he chose to secure his own,” Beg said.
“I have put the historic perspective before the people, notonce, but on quite a few occasions, the historians/political commentators arefree to do their research. Another vitalopportunity came their way in 1996 when DrFarooq Abdullah had a two-thirdmajority in the J&K Assembly. Did he not squander-away that mandate? Couldhe not have pushed for ‘concrete measures’ before taking oath? What was donewhen J&K Assembly’s ‘autonomy resolution’ was debunked? All of this needsto be put before the people and they can judge on their own, these are coldfacts, no ‘political’ response to this will suffice,” Beg said.He said that National Conference does not havethe moral authority to lecture anybody over protection of Article 370/35-A. “Wehave heard the National Conference vice-president admit and accept having stuckwith the BJP while they undertook and executed the worst in 2002 in Gujarat,should they not apologize for the lost opportunities in 1975 and 1996? It would be far more gracious if theyintrospect and apologize rather than sermonizing on the preservation andprotection of Article 370 and 35-A.” “The PDP, unlike the NC of 1996 did not have the numbers on its side andyet made the mighty Govt of India led by the BJP to agree to the Agenda ofAlliance. PDP, by way of the Agenda of Alliance, made the BJP agree on talkingto Pakistan and the separatists, made them agree on return of power projects,the BJP was made to agree on not tampering with the ‘special status’ of thestate. The Modi government did start with an out-reach to Pakistan, it did notsuit them politically and they could not handle the pressure that the PDP putit under is another matter. The non-implementation of the Agenda of Alliance onpart of the BJP certainly increased the trust-deficit between the Valley andthe Government of India.”