Bandipora: National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah Thursday called for strengthening unity to fight for the restoration of J&K’s abridged rights and said the cronies of BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) were working towards dividing the voice of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing the NC workers convention in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, Abdullah said BJP’s policy in J&K was aimed at driving a wedge in J&K just to deflect them from underway efforts in the restoration of J&K’s abridged rights.
He said that the BJP was incessantly trying to divide the voice of the people of J&K so that its stooges and cronies make it to the legislature to give credence to the August 5, 2019 decisions.
“They haven’t stopped yet. The next thing to do on their agenda is to fragment our voices so that they and their cronies make it to the legislature and sanction the unilateral, undemocratic, and unconstitutional decisions of August 5, 2019. They will use the legislature to justify their undemocratic decisions nationally and globally,” the former chief minister said.
Calling for strengthening efforts underway to get back the rights of people of J&K, Abdullah said the people of J&K know that these cronies of BJP were flying under false colours and their sole agenda was to help BJP to get the sanction of the J&K legislature.
“We have to work together to achieve the ultimate goal of securing our abridged rights. We have chosen a constitutional, legal, and democratic path towards that end. There is no scope for complacency. Our workers have to go door to door to ensure that our agenda reaches every doorstep,” he said.
Abdullah said that the DDC polls were hurried to thwart the unity of a number of political parties in the shape of the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).
“They thought that the alliance partners will fight separately but it didn’t happen. NC went out of its way and made sacrifices to ensure the alliance takes deep roots. They failed to achieve that end. The results were a telling indictment of the people’s aversion to the decisions taken by the Centre on August 5, 2019. People’s verdict debunked the claims of BJP that the decisions had fared well in J&K. The out and out support of the people for PAGD belies such claims,” he said.
Abdullah said that NC had the force of people behind it and would continue to strive for the protection of their culture, land, jobs, and democratic rights which were snatched away from the people on August 5, 2019.
Talking to media persons on the sidelines of the event, he said BJP wanted to pass a resolution favouring the abrogation of Article 370 in the J&K Assembly.
Abdullah said that Article 370 was the identity of J&K rather than what BJP made it look like.
“We had our flag and our constitution,” he said. “Now people even in Leh and Kargil have stood up for the protection of their identity as they do not want to lose it.”
“The Delimitation Commission while redrawing boundaries of constituencies in J&K should not make decisions political in taste or favourable to any particular party or any of their friends,” Abdullah said.
Senior NC leaders Ali Muhammad Sagar, NasirAslamWani, Muhammad Akbar Lone, Choudhary Muhammad Ramzaan, and Nazir Ahmad Khan (Gurezi) besides TanvirSadiq, AhsanPardesi, G R Naaz, and Salman Ali Sagar were also present on the occasion.