Srinagar, Jun 20: National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah today once again called for immediate dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and holding of fresh elections in the state.
“The J&K state assembly should be dissolved immediately & fresh elections should take place as soon as appropriate. The former DCM has admitted that BJP can’t be trusted not to horsetrade for Govt formation (sic),” Omar tweeted.
The former chief minister was reacting to BJP leader and former deputy chief minister (DCM) Kavinder Gupta’s reported statement that his party was “working on something”.
“I don’t think a new government will be formed anytime soon. Uncertainties are there, but we are working on something and people will get to know about it,” Gupta had reportedly said.
The NC leader claimed that Gupta’s statement hinted at the BJP’s attempts to break other parties to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.
“What do you mean ‘we are working on something’? The only ‘something’ would be to break other parties & make up the numbers to form a BJP Govt. Has the former DCM inadvertently spilled the beans?” Omar asked on Twitter.
On a news report about Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh not being kept in the loop about the BJP’s decision to pull out of the government, Omar tweeted, “If this story is true & @HMOIndia didn’t know about the impending demise of the BJPDP alliance then the fact that it caught me & my colleagues by surprise is really no big deal.”
Earlier Omar chaired a meeting of the party’s Core Group at party headquarters to discuss the prevailing situation and recent developments in the state.
Addressing reporters at the conclusion of the meeting, Omar said the party sought the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly to thwart attempts and plans of horsetrading as this would result in further erosion in the credibility of the democratic process and institutions in the state.
The NC vice-president said dialogue internally as well as externally was imperative and the political issue in Kashmir as well as the ensuing crisis could not be resolved through operational and military means.
He also said there should be zero-tolerance for human rights violations and the fundamental rights of the people should be upheld at all costs. The foremost concern should be to provide relief to the people of the state through a reconciliatory rather than confrontational approach and to work towards creating a peaceful, positive atmosphere in the state.
In response to a question, the former chief minister said Mehbooba Mufti’s government would be remembered for its “ruthless, anti-people legacy that fueled alienation in the Valley through its iron-fist approach to deal with widespread disenchantment and disillusionment that was stoked by PDP’s glaring ideological U-turns to remain in power.”
Omar Abdullah said PDP’s approach to deal with recurring crises in the Valley was “an approach of denial, persecution and insensitivity evidenced by her silence on glaring human-rights violations where youth were used as human-shields and mowed down by vehicles in stark contrast to the hollow rhetoric of the former chief minister.”
The NC leader reiterated the party’s stand that it would neither seek support nor offer support for government formation in the state and reiterated that the Assembly should be dissolved to thwart attempts of horse-trading which aim to discredit the aspirations of the people.
The Core Group meeting was attended by party general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, additional general secretary Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal besides other senior leaders and legislators.
