Srinagar, Apr 15: Continuing his tirade against the National Conference, Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone on Monday said “political thuggery and political monkeying” of Nc has no space among the new generation.
Addressing party workers in Kangan, Lone said that Omar Abdullah, “as foreign minister of the BJP government between 1999-2002, travelled across the world capitals to put forward the BJP government’s viewpoint on Kashmir”.
He said the BJP government’s manifesto and ideology is same as it was in 1999. They believed in abrogation of Article 370 then and they believe in it now.
“We want to tell Omar Abdullah is that he was the junior foreign minister and his job specifically at the time was to be the poster boy of that regime. May we remind him it was the time when human rights violations were at its peak. Let him tell the people what all did he advocate when he went to foreign capitals as the poster boy of that BJP regime,” Lone said.
“One, we know that he stressed that there were no human rights violations in Kashmir. Second, let him tell us that did he advocate abrogation of Article 370 when he went to foreign capitals —that was the official policy at that time.
“This person who wants us to believe that he is the sole warrior against the BJP turns out to be an ex-warrior of the BJP and will be a warrior in the future as well,” Lone added.
He said that the NC is panicked by the “impending rejection by the people” and has gone into an overdrive in terms of theatrics.
“They are bending their back backwards promising the elusive moon to the people of Kashmir. Their political thuggery and political monkeying has no space among the new generation. Change is a reality. Changelessness is curse. And the curse has to go. Change is visible on the dawn and this parliament election will herald the onset of change. The era of lies and deceit has to end,” he added.
On Omar Abdullah’s silence on meeting the top BJP leadership after 2014 elections, Sajad Lone reiterated his assertion that Omar was “actively discussing modalities of government formation” with the BJP and asked him to give a clear answer on this issue.
“Omar Abdullah is yet to give a clear answer on the secretive meetings he held with the BJP leadership after 2014 Assembly polls. The people of Kashmir deserve to know that the chameleon disguising himself as the sole warrior against the BJP had in-fact agreed on having a chief minister from Jammu for three years. His silence on negotiating an un-holy deal with the BJP is a clear admission of guilt,” Lone said.
“It is time either Omar Abdullah denies hobnobbing with the BJP or apologizes to the people of Kashmir for lying to them,” he added.
Lone said that NC and Congress are the real architects of diluting Article 370.
“It is time NC ends this theatre of projecting the Abdullahs as the safeguards of our special status when they have been the chief architects in eroding J&K’s special status so as to hold on to power. All previous erosions have taken place either during the Congress rule or NC rule. Having weakened our special status between 1954-1996, the NC-Cong duo is now busy projecting themselves as the protectors of our special identity,” he alleged.
Reiterating that Article 370 is a special set of guarantees extended to the state of J&K to become part of the Indian Union, Lone said that only reversing the erosions can bring peace to the Valley.
“Rather than launching frequent assaults on the special identity of J&K, the government should explore non-military measures to arrest the trend of growing alienation among the people of the state. The only non-military measures that can bring a semblance of peace in the valley is to reverse the erosions taken place during Congress and NC governments. If Delhi is serious in addressing the growing alienation in the valley, it has to look at a systemic and gradual reversal of all past erosions so as to bring Article 370 back to its original pristine form,” Lone said.
