Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday issued a stern warning against misinterpreting his administration’s “politeness as weakness”, remarks which came a day after he was allegedly “manhandled” by police while he tried to pay tributes to the 22 people killed by the Dogra army in 1931.
Abdullah also demanded accountability from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for an admitted intelligence failure in the Pahalgam terror attack.
The chief minister’s comments, which came during the inauguration of a new block of the Bones and Joints hospital, were reinforced by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, who also demanded an apology from the Lt Governor for the “manhandling” of Abdullah during an event to pay Martyrs Day tributes on Monday.
“Some people think that we are weak because we don’t indulge in threats and intimidation, but I want to tell them that we are not weak,” Abdullah said while addressing the function.
“Don’t mistake our politeness for weakness. We will not trade the dreams and hopes (for the restoration of statehood) of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We are not here due to someone’s favour… If anyone has done us a favour, it is the Almighty and the voters of J&K.”
Abdullah also reacted to Lt Governor’s remarks in a newspaper interview, where Sinha admitted that the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people occurred due to intelligence failure and accepted responsibility.
“After 80 days, it is better late than never,” Abdullah later told reporters, stressing that now that an intelligence failure has been acknowledged, responsibility must be fixed.
“It cannot happen that 26 people lose their lives and there is no progress …someone has to be held responsible for that.”
Political tensions were amplified by Monday’s events, in which Abdullah claimed he was subjected to “physical grappling” after he scaled the gates of the Naqshband Sahib graveyard to pay tribute to the 22 people killed by the Dogra army in 1931.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary also took a strong stance on the matter, calling on the Lt Governor to apologise not to the leaders, but to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The LG should apologise for what happened yesterday. He should not apologise to us but to the people who gave the mandate to us, he should seek an apology from that mandate and the Constitution and Indian democracy,” Choudhary told reporters here.
“The LG should also seek an apology from the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in 1947 for the independence of the country,” he added.
He said what happened on Monday was a “disrespect” of democracy and the freedom for which lakhs of people sacrificed their lives.
“We did not get freedom easily, many sacrifices were made for it. The Omar Abdullah government in J&K was elected under the same freedom and constitution. This government has the mandate of the people.
“Whatever happened yesterday, what the police did, my leader Omar Abdullah is an elected chief minister, elected by the people. This is not Omar Abdullah’s insult, but the insult of the democracy in J&K and the country, it is the insult of the people of J&K who have elected us,” he said.
Without naming anyone, Choudhary said “they” should not think that “they will hide behind the statehood, push us and we will tolerate it”.
“We and the people of J&K will not tolerate it if anyone tries to disrespect our leader,” he said.
Referring to the LG’s reported statement that he felt responsible for the Pahalgam attack, Chaudhary said Sinha remembered after 82 days that he is responsible for security lapse in Pahalgam, and “one day he will accept that what the police, which is under his control, did with Omar Abdullah, was wrong”.
He said the 22 people who were killed in 1931 did not fight against India but the British rule.
“In 1931, India was not an independent country, it was ruled by the British. They fought against the British. Those people are martyrs, they were against oppression,” he said, adding “what happened yesterday was also oppression”.
