KL Desk
Srinagar
Referring Omar Abdullah’s threat to resign as a joke, Peoples Democratic Party said that the claim of chief minister in case the charges of corruption against him were proven smacks of old trick he resorts to whenever cornered.
“We want to remind him that all institutions of probity in the state like State Accountability Commission and RTI Act have been defanged by the present dispensation. The resignation threat sounds like a joke because the chief minister failed to do so when Haji Yousuf episode took place or in the wake of more than 100 killings of the youth in 2010,” PDP chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar said in a statement.
Lashing out at Omar Abdullah for his recent ‘make up kit’ remark, Akhtar said that it is an attempt to cast aspersion on integrity of women of Kashmir in particular and insult to people of state in general.
Akhtar claimed that Omar is desperate to win few council seats and is hitting in all directions.
“It was unfortunate that the head of the state government had lost his sense of propriety as a result of the panic that has struck him in his pursuit to win a few council seats for the ruling coalition,” said Akhtar.
“Cursing the opposition for all his failures was now a stock response of the chief minister but making such demeaning remarks against the mothers and sisters were completely unacceptable”, he added.
The PDP spokesman said women had defied considerable social barriers in taking a plunge into electoral process and are occupying a seriously contested democratic space. The chief minister through his insensitive remarks has however created a hugely negative impression about them, he said.
“It seems the National Conference through such statements intends to discourage women of the state from being empowered and assigned the much deserved political space,” said Akhtar.
Accusing Omar Abdullah as narrow minded towards women, chief spokesman said that such statements does not go well with claim of Omar to have a degree from abroad or having any modern day schooling. “No Western or Islamic education teaches such narrow mindedness towards women. The chief minister needs to have a lesson or two on the place the woman occupy in Kashmiri society and the value and faith attached to mothers and sisters.”
The chief minister’s remark at its meanest level is not only sexist but also gravely anti-woman.
“The reason of the state being in the throes of dark era is because of feudal forces which relegated the woman’s role to space around hearth,” said Akhtar.
“Omar’s remark if scrutinised through the historic prism points out the feudal mindset of the 18th century. We fear such a statement where Omar expressed doubt publicly on the integrity of our women folk will box them again into oblivion, much to the liking of the ruling party,” he said.
Akhtar said Omar’s ‘make-up kit’ remark will make woman vulnerable at their homes, where they will have to face questions and jibes after the chief minister’s irresponsible statement in a constituency which the Abdullah clan ruled for centuries. “This shows how this family pays to those who voted them in the past to power,” said Akhtar.
He said in fact the state government has siphoned off crores of rupees it received as contingency grants under the MNREGA that could have been paid as remuneration.
Akhtar said Omar by talking of make up kits and lipstick is displaying an eighteenth century feudal mindset in which the rulers would advise people to eat cakes during famine. “It is absurd to talk of cosmetics in our rural settings where the inefficiency and corruption by Omar government has thrown womenfolk back into Middle Ages,” he said.
The PDP spokesman said people need to draw a parallel between the yesterday’s statement and this government’s design to push our mothers and sisters to the wall and ensure their participation in political space is truncated as much as possible.
“The recent measures by the ruling party have already put our sisters through a series of hardships. Cooking gas is a dream now and water remains a hard task of the day for the woman in rural and many areas of the city. The non-availability of cooking gas and cumbersome procedures has already women back to forests collecting food to keep their hearth burning. Everyday woman walks miles to fetch water in rural areas to feed their kids,” said Akhtar.
“How this government sees women was stark when the chief minister concluded the case even when inquiry was started in the Shopian double murder case of our sisters in 2009. Omar proposed drowning theory without considering the pleas made by the family. Similarly, women were targeted in 2010. The culprits behind the killing of a woman in Batamaloo continue to be at large. This government took no action against the people behind the killing of the innocent woman at Batamaloo. This shows seriousness of this government in cases where women were victims,” said Akhar added.
He said this dispensation has a history of beating women when ever they took to the street for basic issues like sadak, bijli pani. “Whether it is old city or Ganderbal, women always have been facing stick for demanding their rights. The sit-ins for just demands organised by the women always saw brute force silencing these sensible voices. But these women will give befitting reply to this dispensation in the coming polls,” said Akhtar.
Akhtar said the women panches were looking forward to the remuneration that the Panchayat Act provides them with but the Omar Abdullah government after having denied it to them for two years is now misleading everybody that it had taken up the matter with the centre.
