Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir Na-tional Conference Chief and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has hit out at the Modi government and asked it not to divide the nation on religious lines. Addressing the media in Jammu after chairing a non-BJP parties meeting in the Valley, veteran politician said that communities shouldn’t be pitched against each other.
“The politics of fear and hate is not new. What will they do to 22-24 crore Muslims? Will they throw them in the sea or will they send them to China?”, Farooq Abdullah said.
“Gandhiji talked about Ram Rajya. By Ram Ra-jya, he meant welfare state where everyone will enjoy equal opportunities and no one will be discriminated against. We all must follow Gandhiji’s principles”, Farooq Abdullah added.
Abdullah chaired a meeting with leaders of more than a dozen parties earlier in the day. The meeting culminated with a decision to meet the Election Commission (EC) in Delhi for early Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and the restoration of its statehood.
The meeting was held at Farooq Abdullah’s residence. After the meeting, he said, “Today, Jammu Chamber of Commerce has given a bandh call against property tax. Youths are being lathicharged. This shows that the situation is not good in J&K.”
“Reducing Jammu & Kashmir from a full-fledged state to a Union Territory is a tragedy for the nation,” Abdullah told reporters after the meeting.
He said, “We will visit Delhi to meet the Election Commission (EC) to call for early Assembly elections and seek their help in the restoration of statehood. We will also meet national opposition leaders.”
Congress president Vikar Rasool Wani, CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, PDP leader Amrik Singh Reen, National Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and district development council member T S Tony were among the leaders present at the meet.
While talking to the media, Abdullah said, “I supported Stalin for PM in response to the media’s question. The Opposition must unite and fight the elections together. Then, we should decide who should be the PM.”
Farooq Abdullah accused the ruling party of making Kashmiri Pandits “scapegoats” in order to project a false sense of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, which is headed for maiden elections after the abro-gation of Article 370.
“The government’s tall claims of normalcy have fallen flat. It is mere propaganda. The government is making Kashmiri Pandit employees scapegoats to project fake normalcy,” he said.
In a letter addressed to Kashmiri Pandit gov-ernment employees last week, TRF, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), said it would carry out more targeted killings and turn transit colonies where members of the community reside into ‘graveyards’.
Abdullah, who has been consistent in his criti-cism of the BJP regime over the uptick in civilian attacks over the past year, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and take concrete steps to neutralise the threat to Kashmiri Pandits.—KMS
