Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 20: Terming Bharatiya Janata Party as political chameleon, Senior National Conference leaders Ali Mohammed Sagar and Devender Singh Rana on Monday described the recent statement of its President Rajnath Singh on Article 370 as realisation of the fact that this constitutional provision, granting Jammu and Kashmir a special status, cannot be reversed.
“The fascist party that has been parroting abrogation of Article 370 for the past over six and half decades has lost its credibility for being parochial, communal and divisive”, Minister for Rural Development Ali Mohammed Sagar said while addressing people who had thronged from different parts of the State, especially the Jammu region, to list their problems during the public hearing at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan this morning.
Referring to the machinations of various political forces to erode the special position of the State, Minister for Rural Development said they failed as National Conference stood like a rock to safeguard the interests of the people. “They always considered Sher-e-Kashmir’s great movement as a stumbling block in their nefarious designs and continued to work against it under different guises”, he said while giving a vivid account of how miserably the then Janata Party failed to weaken the resolve of people, who stood by the side of the towering leader Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. He said these elements are still active, though in different manifestations, and working towards achieving their evil designs. The biggest worry to these dejected and rejected politicians is the strong base of National Conference that has never shown any cracks’, he maintained.
Mr Sagar made a dig at the recent protests lodged by People’s Democratic Party and said they created a hilarious situation for themselves by mustering couple of people and levelling the allegations on account of certain utility services which failed to cut ice.
Speaking on the occasion, Provincial President Mr Rana assailed BJP and PDP for anti-people activities, saying they have no agenda except maligning National Conference and its leadership by indulging in deceit and falsehood.
Mr Rana took BJP head on for its changing stance on Article 370, saying once its top brass realised that their rhetoric will take them nowhere, they took a u-turn. “Call it an embarrassment or realisations of the facts, the BJP has understood that it cannot exploit the people on this sensitive issue anymore,” he added.
“For over 65 years they were hoodwinking public opinion on this important provisio and dubbing its votaries as anti-nationals”, he said, asking what was the explanation of BJP leadership after the changed stance of its party president. He said National Conference has been all along opposing any move to weaken this provision, notwithstanding the mischievous propaganda unleashed by the BJP and other likeminded organisatons.
He cautioned BJP against vitiating the atmosphere by hoodwinking public opinion and said they have failed in the past and will meet the same destiny in future as well. “Communal politics has no place in a state that has been abode of the people belonging to different faiths, who have been living in harmony”, he said, adding that irrational and divisive forces have always got a befitting reply in all the three regions.
Referring to the calculations and assumptions being drawn by various political parties in the ensuing elections, Mr Rana said they will fail on the face of strong wave in favour of National Conference. He said the policies and programmes, together with the record card of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during the past five years, is real strength for the party to go to the people for seeking a decisive mandate to fullfill their aspirations in future as well. “Next term is going to be the years of consolidation and initiation of innovative measures to further uplift the living conditions of the people’, he said.