KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference Working President and former chief minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that PDP’s “abandonment of every single political promise” prior to its sell-out to the BJP would have “far-reaching political implications and has resulted in a drastic alienation of youth in the Valley”.
The NC Working President was speaking at a workers’ meeting at Dyalgam, Islamabad on Wednesday.
“What happened to the promise of revoking AFSPA? What happened to the promise of sending the Army back to the barracks? What happened to the promise of making New Delhi to enter into a dialogue with the Hurriyat leadership? What happened to the promise of making New Delhi talk to Pakistan? What happened to the promise of opening additional LoC routes? All these promises with the youth of Kashmir stand broken by PDP within the first nine months of its formal alliance with the BJP,” Omar Abdullah asked in his address to his party workers.
“The same Mufti Sayeed who spoke about ‘Goli se Nahi, Boli se’ has become the tormentor of not only the separatist leaders but also the youth of the State in general. The Chief Minister went above and beyond the call of duty to arrest nearly 1,500 youth and political activists for a single public meeting of the Prime Minister. Kashmir had never witnessed such a clampdown during the visit of Prime Ministers in the past. And despite Mufti Sahab bending over backwards to please the Prime Minister and the BJP, the Prime Minister brazenly ridiculed the Chief Minister in front of the whole world,” he said.
“The Prime Minister, in response to Mufti Sahab’s speech, snubbed an elected Chief Minister of the State by telling Mufti Sahab that he did not require anyone’s advice on the Kashmir Issue. This happened in front of the entire world. And this same Chief Minister had tried to tell us that he would be the architect of the resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue? It’s clearly evident now that our Chief Minister has absolutely no say even in addressing the internal dimensions of the political issue,” Omar said.
“What happened to all those ‘Revoke AFSPA’ placards of Mehbooba Mufti? Along with their conscience, did PDP discard those placards as soon as it came to power in an alliance with the same people they had promised to keep at bay? During their election campaign, the PDP had a single-point agenda that it sought votes on – that the party would keep BJP at a safe distance from the State. PDP leaders told the people that a vote for NC would be a vote for BJP while as a vote for PDP would be a vote against the BJP. Today the same PDP has politically and ideologically embraced not only the BJP but also the RSS. Today the same Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is desperately issuing one certificate of secularism after another to the Prime Minister at a time when BJP stands condemned for hate-mongering and communal polarization all across the country – and most recently in Bihar,” he added.
“Even the Muslims of J&K – India’s only Muslim-majority State felt insecure and threatened because of the PDP-BJP alliance and the platform given by BJP to RSS in the State. While the youth of Kashmir are robbed of the right to even criticize the BJP and RSS without being hounded and arrested, RSS is allowed to march with guns and swords on the streets of Jammu. What could be a more damning indictment of this Government and that of the Chief Minister?” Omar Abdullah further said. “Despite nine months having passed, the Mufti-led Government has been a complete disappointment for thousands of flood victims who are now going to face another harsh winter in makeshift shelters with no government compensation and relief. Even in the Rs 80,000 Crore Union Government Package, there is barely anything at all for the flood victims in terms of compensation and relief that would enable them to rebuild their homes and re-establish their sources of livelihood.”