Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday stressed on the need to identify the internal and external enemies of Jammu and Kashmir and said the unity of people will not let “nefarious plans” of such forces work.
Addressing a public gathering at Harinara Singhpora in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, Abdullah according to a party press release also said the incumbent regime’s normalcy, peace and development narrative is “hardly” visible on the ground.
“People are yearning for their democratic, constitutional and human rights, which have incessantly been abridged since 2019,” he said referring to the abrogation of Article 370 in that year.
Cautioning people against “divisive forces” contriving to divide the people of Jammu and Kashmir on religious, regional and sectarian lines, the MP from Srinagar said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are confronting a two-front battle — one with those “peddling divisive agenda” nationally and the other one locally.
He also stressed on the need to identify the internal and external enemies of Jammu and Kashmir
“NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah always maintained that a day will come when there will be a leader in every street and corner of Kashmir. The prevailing circumstances have attested to his forewarning,” Abdullah said.
“Today, we see mushrooming of political parties and leaders in every nook and corner of Kashmir. The risky political vacuum created by the decisions of August 2019 cannot be filled by such airdropped leaders. It is a genuine popular representative government that will meet the challenge of instilling faith in the hearts of people,” he said.
Abudllah said in spite of their failures to make inroads into Kashmir even with the help of their A and B teams, the “communal forces” are now up to creating leaders in every mohalla, street and village.
“It is a warning sign for us. The people of Kashmir must remain cautious of such forces who want to divide our society on regional, religious, communal, and sectarian lines,” he said.
Meanwhile, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah on Saturday said forces inimical to peace and brotherhood in Jammu and Kashmir were peddling a “false narrative”, and there was a need to counter it with facts.
Abdullah made these remarks while addressing party functionaries at Nawa-e-Subha where the newly-appointed NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq assumed office.
The NC last week revamped the party media cell, appointing Sadiq, political secretary to Abdullah, as its chief spokesperson.
The party also made some other appointments in its media cell giving key positions to young faces, including Imran Nabi Dar, who has been appointed as the state spokesperson.
They were also felicitated on the occasion.
Omar asked the party’s communications team to continue countering the “false narrative being peddled” by forces inimical to peace and brotherhood with facts.
He said media has assumed immense importance, but truth has become the first casualty in this manifest shift in public opinion and perception building techniques.
“How much factual information is reported and how much of it is being manufactured is open to question. Here what is important is not what people see, but what they aren’t allowed to see. Reporting from J&K has been at the receiving end of this bias,” he said.
“It is here that our media team has a role to play to put a real picture of what is happening in front of the people. It is upon your shoulders to counter the lies being churned out day in and day out,” he added.
In the present times, the NC leader said, it is very hard to have an open debate on the issues that people are confronting.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said all the ruling dispensation wants is to portray a “false reality” and cautioned the functionaries that with each passing day, the “shoddy and bogus” propaganda machinery will go into overdrive to “polarise” the atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir.
“There is no way they can answer people on unavailability of jobs, lack of development and economic backsliding. Their face saving theatrics have fallen flat. We have to remain vigilant and not allow them to thrive on societal, regional and religious fault-lines,” he said.
“It is a big challenge before us, and I believe our new media team headed by Sadiq will engage with such devious elements at all platforms with facts and reality checks,” he added.
