Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday hit back at the ally Congress over the Vande Mataram issue, saying standing for all stanzas of the national song at official events is a statutory requirement that cannot be bypassed.
Abdullah was responding to Congress criticism of the National Conference over the singing of the full version of the national song at the inauguration of the International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir here.
The chief minister said the issue had been needlessly politicised.
“They (Congress) should have stopped this in Parliament. But, a law has been enacted. Now, in a function where two governors, one lieutenant governor, and the acting chief justice of our high court are present, the national anthem will obviously be played,” he told reporters.
Abdullah said that legally, wherever the national anthem is played, all stanzas of Vande Mataram have been made mandatory.
“This is not just for Jammu and Kashmir; it applies to the entire country. In states governed by the Congress, the same will happen at government functions,” he said.
Asserting that legal action can be taken against those who do not stand for the full national song, Abdullah questioned whether the Congress wants Kashmiris be jailed on this pretext.
“This is now a statutory obligation. Even today, at the closing ceremony, a Union minister will be present. The national anthem will be played there, and the national song will be played too,” he added.
Abdullah said his party has not adopted the full song and has no objection if the Congress government in future revokes it.
“When the Congress comes to power, and I pray the Congress comes to power as soon as possible, they can revoke this in Parliament. Let them do it, we have no objection. In fact, as a party, we have never adopted Vande Mataram, and we won’t adopt it in the future either. But whatever our legal and statutory obligations are, we have to fulfill them,” he said.
Abdullah dismissed the controversy as an attempt to make “a mountain out of a molehill”.
He also referred to his party chief spokesperson and Zadibal MLA, Tanvir Sadiq’s alleged derogatory remarks against the people of Kashmir, and said it was a needless controversy.
“Now, what did Tanvir say that was historically inaccurate? Walter Lawrence wrote about it in his book. Many other historians have documented the extreme poverty of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly of Kashmiris, how back then we were crushed between the ‘Zaildars’, ‘Chakdars’, and landlords. People had no money,” Abdullah said.
Defending his party colleagues, the chief minister said Sadiq was not the first from the party to state that.
“Hardly any senior National Conference leader — from our president to the general secretary and others — hasn’t spoken about this context: that there was a time when Kashmiris were so impoverished that they had to borrow trousers from the mosque to visit the city.
“This is not Tanvir’s personal opinion; it is a historical fact. And his intention was simply to show the level of poverty from which we have emerged to reach where we are today, educating our children, seeing them become doctors and engineers,” he added.
Abdullah said the BJP and PDP play a fixed match together by picking up a common issue and moving forward with it.
“They share a common agenda. Tanvir does not need to apologize for this, nor does he need to offer any clarification. Neither does anyone in my party need to apologize for this. Tanvir said nothing wrong,” he asserted.
About the first International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir, the CM said the government’s effort is to have local youth take courses in camera work, production, and related fields.
Film shoots should take place here, giving them an opportunity to work, he said.
On the question of protests by Kashmiri Pandit employees over accommodation, the chief minister said none of such employees were homeless or living on the streets.
“Wherever transit accommodation is ready, it has been allotted to them. So which Kashmiri Pandit employee is without accommodation? This has almost become a routine, protesting without reason, doing other such things.
“If there is one or two individuals who need accommodation, let them inform us. Everyone else has been allotted housing,” he added.
About the BRICS summit in New Delhi, Abdullah said leaders of many major countries like Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil are attending.
“These nations were already part of it, and more countries have been added. Good. Let the summit happen; we will see,” he said.
On a scheduled meeting of his council of ministers, the CM said the government convenes a cabinet meeting at least once every month anyway.
“The agenda of governance cannot stop. But there won’t be anything extraordinary in this cabinet meeting that would require you to wait around,” he said.
