New Delhi: Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar hit out at National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday over his remarks that the people of Jammu and Kashmir may have to make “sacrifices” like the agitating farmers to get their rights back, saying it shows that he loves violence, not peace.
He suggested that Abdullah should leave the country to live in any other part of the world that he likes if he feels suffocated in India.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader also slammed People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti for staging a protest in Delhi against the alleged repression of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, saying “it has become a fashion for her to tell lies”.
He said both the leaders from Jammu and Kashmir should stop playing the “politics of provocation” and becoming an obstruction in maintaining the country’s unity and integrity.
“His statement clearly shows that he loves violence, not peace. He is saying he will get everyone killed, keep them hungry,” Kumar said at a press conference here when asked for his views on Abdullah’s remarks.
“Farooq Abdullah had earlier said China’s help will be taken for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. Shall we accept it? Never. It is nonsense. If he feels suffocated here, he should go wherever he wants, Arab or America. His wife lives in England. He can also think of going there to live with his wife. He will be happy,” the RSS leader added.
Abdullah on Sunday said the people of Jammu and Kashmir may have to make “sacrifices”, like the farmers protesting against three farm laws did, to restore its statehood and special status.
Addressing a convention of the NC’s youth wing on the occasion of the 116th birth anniversary of party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah at his mausoleum at Naseembagh in Srinagar, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister also said his party does not support violence.
Mufti staged a ‘dharna’ (sit-in) at Jantar Mantar here on Monday to protest against the alleged repression of the people of the Union Territory and demanded that the killings of innocents be stopped immediately.
The former chief minister said she decided to stage the ‘dharna’ in the national capital as she was never allowed to register her protest in Kashmir. She said she was either detained at her house or whisked away by police every time she planned a protest.
Scores of PDP workers joined her in the protest at Jantar Mantar.
In August 2019, the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into Union territories.
Replying to the reporters’ questions, Kumar alleged that Abdullah and Mufti are up against the abrogation of Article 370 because “somewhere or the other” they were associated with “the forces” weakening India.
After the abrogation of Article 370, India had become a country with “one nationality, one flag, one law and one national anthem”, he said.
“They (Abdullah and Mufti) are not liking this because somewhere or the other, they were associated with the forces weakening our country. They were playing into their hands. Because of this, sometimes they say they will take the help of Pakistan or China, sometimes they say they will not hold the tiranga (tricolour),” the RSS leader added.
He asked Abdullah and Mufti to refrain from making “anti-national announcements and becoming an obstruction” in the country’s unity and integrity.
“They bring embarrassment to the country with their unconstitutional and anti-national announcements…. They should stop playing the politics of provocation,” Kumar said.
He also said a daylong international conference, titled “Global Terrorism versus Humanity, Peace and Possibilities — Fundamentalism: The Dividing Line, A Case Study of Afghanistan”, will be organised under the joint aegis of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, the Vishwagram and the Forum for Awareness of National Security here on December 11.
“The conference is being organised to brainstorm on the larger problem of global terrorism, naxalism and other forms of terrorism in India, and find a way forward. Due to the pressing problems of terrorism, violence and fundamentalism, we still witness the emergence of repressive regimes and intolerant societies, which coercively oppress their own populations in the name of religious fundamentalism,” Kumar, who is the founder and chief patron of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, said.
The Taliban in Afghanistan has surfaced as the most recent manifestation of this scenario, representing the “most horrendous expression of the challenge of global terrorism to the existence of humanity,” he added.
