SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah Thursday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the release of terrorists in exchange for Rubaiya Sayeed in 1989 and an Indian Airlines plane in Afghanistan in 1999 are responsible for the growth of terrorism in the region.
Abdullah was replying to PM Modi’s speech in an election rally at Srinagar earlier in the day accusing the NC, Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of “destruction” of Jammu and Kashmir. The former J&K chief minister said the people should be thankful that the NC was there in 1947 at the time of Partition otherwise the Muslim-majority state would have become a part of Pakistan.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an election rally in Udhampur East in support of the party candidate Sunil Verma, the NC president also opposed the ‘one nation, one election’ plan of the BJP-led government and accused the party of spreading hatred in the country.
Asked about the statement of the prime minister in Srinagar accusing the three families – NC, Congress and PDP – for destroying Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah asked who released hardcore terrorists at Kandahar, Afghanistan in December 1999 in exchange for the hijacked 814 Indian Airlines plane and for abducted Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in 1989.
Rubaiya is the sister of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
“Who put pressure when I told them that don’t do it (release the terrorists in both cases)? The same terrorists who were released then are running terrorism in J&K from Pakistan. I had told at that time that they would be responsible for our destruction but nobody listened and now they are blaming us – Congress and NC,” Abdullah said.
He said the people should be thankful that the NC was there in J&K during the partition. “Had we not been there, J&K would have become a part of Pakistan because it was a Muslim-majority state. Instead, we preferred the path of Gandhi-Nehru to become part of India where all of its citizens — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Buddhists — are equals.”
Abdullah said they are claiming that terrorism is over but the ground situation shows that it has increased in the otherwise peaceful Jammu region.
“They have kept open the door of hatred and we have to shut it down. (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi is saying we have to shut the shop of hatred and open the shops of love. I am saying that we have to sink the vehicle of hatred and flag off the vehicle of love throughout the country,” he said.
“We are the crown of India and that new dawn (against hatred) will emerge from here,” the NC leader said, exuding confidence in winning the upcoming assembly elections to form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Asked about his reaction to the ‘one nation, one election’ plan of the BJP-led government, he said that will not run in the country.
“When it (one nation, one election) will be debated in Parliament, you will listen. I want to know if a government collapses in any part of the country, will it come under the president’s rule till the next election?
“How will it work? Let them make us understand in Parliament what they mean by this. How will they maintain the federal structure?” he said.
Moving ahead with its ‘one nation, one election’ plan, the Union government on Wednesday accepted a high-level panel’s recommendations for holding simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies in a phased manner after a countrywide consensus-building exercise.
Asked about the BJP’s claim of forming the next government in J&K, he said, “They are building castles in the air.”
“First, let us see who sweeps the elections… Have they won the hearts of the people of Jammu?” he said, asking what they have done for Jammu.
He said the people are losing their land and are suffering due to inflation, while the civil and police officers from outside are posted in top positions ignoring the local officers who have run the state for seven decades.
Asked about the reported statement of Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif that his country and NC-Congress alliance in J&K are on the same page over the restoration of Article 370, he said, “I don’t know what Pakistan is saying because I am not from Pakistan. I am a citizen of India.”
He said if his party forms government, he will restore the practice of the ‘Darbar Move’ under which the government used to function six months each in Srinagar and Jammu during summer and winter. The LG administration stopped the practice in June 2021.
Abdullah said the 149-year-old practice was started by Dogra rulers and it has become a bond between the two regions which “they have broken”. (PTI)
