Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah on Friday asserted that people of the state are the rightful owners of Jammu & Kashmir, and no one can abridge their constitutional rights.
Addressing public meetings at Chak Dhara, Fakirgujri, Farooq said that the people of Kashmir have never allowed anyone to subdue them.
“In the coming times, we will keep up with this historical proclivity of ours. Delhi has time and again betrayed people of the state by backpedalling on the assurances it gave from time to time on restoring Autonomy,” he said, adding, “Never in history have the state highways been closed for civilian traffic, even during the most tumultuous times witnessed by the state. Even during the height of the Kargil war, the civilian vehicular movement was never disallowed as is being done today. The order should be revoked as it will make lives of lakhs of people miserable.”
Dr Farooq said, “Today our nation is facing immense hazard in the form of communal strife. We are at crossroads, now it is up to us to decide if India remains secular and progressive in its outlook wherein all the communities thrive and draw their sustenance affably or a country which is tangled with the clutches of communal strife and bigotry. The opportunity has come; we should not let it pass by us unutilized”.
“Today, on one hand, there is Gandhi’s India which is all-inclusive and on the other hand there are forces, which believe that India belongs to the adherents of only one faith,” he said without naming BJP or Modi.
Lashing out at Mufti’s for berating and betraying the mandate of people given to it in 2014, he said, “Mufti Syed betrayed the mandate of people by hobnobbing with RSS-BJP. People had reposed their faith in him but what followed was a colossal betrayal of that trust”.
Castigating former PDP-BJP government on the implementation of GST in the state, Farooq said, “PDP hunkered down for the sake of power and chair, not to talk of preserving what was left of our autonomy; PDP implemented the national food security act, GST act, SARFAESI”.
In a frontal attack on Modi, Dr Farooq said, “The incumbent Modi government failed on all fronts and to hide its failures it has created a confrontational situation with a neighbouring country to hide the farmer distress, price rise, foreign policy failures, and falling economy. He squandered the mandate of people and aggravated the situation to an extent which will take years to restore. Every single vital sector of our country is presenting a grim tale of mis-governance.”
“We have to vote for securing our identity and integrity. Our vote will make difference both at centre and at the state level. The people should avail this opportunity and send the candidates of NC to Parliament,” he added.
