Srinagar, Jul 11: National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah delivered a sharply worded address at the Dargah Hazratbal on Saturday, accusing successive governments at the Centre of repeatedly failing to keep their word to Jammu and Kashmir, while taking direct aim at political opponents he accused of acting on Delhi’s orders while claiming to represent local interests.
Recalling decades of unfulfilled assurances, Abdullah invoked a meeting during the tenure of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, saying the promise then was that “whatever shortcomings this government has caused, we will certainly look into them and restore matters.” Decades later, he suggested, little had changed. “We too are human beings,” he said. “We too are the crown of India — we too have our dignity here.”
The NC chief also recounted a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi he said he attended alongside senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, telling those present at the time: “It is unfortunate that we do not trust you, and you do not trust us. Let us first build this trust.” He said assurances that the “distance between Delhi and Kashmir” would be narrowed had, in practice, only widened over the years.
Turning combative, Abdullah accused unnamed local rivals of publicly aligning with Delhi’s directives while stirring unrest on the ground. In pointed remarks, he challenged them directly: “Are you ready to sell this state? Are you ready to sell the honour of your own parents?” He urged them to abandon what he called their “servitude” and align instead with the people’s cause, warning that those who betray the state’s poor “will not be kept at peace… the fire of hell awaits them.”
Abdullah countered by pointing to his own party’s efforts on infrastructure and public services, claiming “no one else could have done” as much in as difficult a period, citing work on schools, colleges, hospitals, and roads.
The NC president closed his address on a note of resolve, framing the party’s demand as one of dignity and rights rather than charity: “We are not asking for anything that isn’t ours — we are only asking for our own right, that this right be returned to us.”
