‘BJP’s mission is to defeat NC’
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 20: National Conference (NC) vice president and candidate for the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency, Omar Abdullah, today said that he expects no relief for Jammu and Kashmir if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes back to power at the Centre.
In an exclusive interview to the Excelsior, Omar said that he has very little expectation from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) if it comes back to power at the Centre.
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“Clearly, I have very little expectation from the NDA. Because we have already seen what they will do. Nothing good will come out of their returning to power, as far as J&K is concerned,” he said.
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The NC vice president, however, said that if the INDIA bloc comes to power, J&K will receive some significant sort of returns from them.
“If the INDIA bloc comes back to power, then obviously I’m more hopeful. In the immediate, I would expect that Statehood will be restored to J&K, even before the Assembly elections. Then I would expect Assembly elections in a full-fledged State,” he said.
Abdullah said that issues of restoring some of the protections that “we had for land, jobs, domicile, and very existence of the people would be discussed with them”.
The NC vice president expressed apprehensions that if PM Modi comes to power again, there will be threat to the Constitution.
“You’ve had senior BJP people talking about dismembering the Constitution, rewriting the Constitution and completely reorienting what India will look like,” he said.
Abdullah said that even there is a possibility of immediate war with Pakistan over the Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) if PM Modi comes back to power.
“No lesser person than the Chief Minister of the politically most significant State of the country saying that within six months, if Prime Minister Modi is returned to power, he will have Pakistan’s control over that side of Kashmir completely erased. That is not possible without war,” he said.
Abdullah said that some voices have emerged in the country who say that the BJP is not doing as well as it was expecting. “…and suddenly they’ve stopped talking about 400…they even stopped talking about 370.
He said that suddenly, they have shifted back to religious polarization, Hindu-Muslim and targeting of Pakistan. “…BJP is not comfortable with how this election is going for them,” he added.
The NC leader said that the BJP’s mission is to defeat NC and accused the Home Minister of directing the delegations he met in Srinagar last week to vote for a particular candidate.
“Clearly, he (HM) came with a mission. And we know what his mission was. …we know from delegations who met him what they were instructed to do. And the entire focus of those meetings was to defeat NC”, he added.
The former CM said that earlier it were the Pakistani Generals who were out to destroy the NC and now it is New Delhi. “Earlier it were the Pakistani Generals who were out to destroy the NC. Today it is New Delhi and its agencies. So, one way or the other, some power is unhappy with us. But the Almighty seems to smile down on us. And so long as we continue to represent the aspirations of the people, I believe that we will continue to receive love and support”, he said.
Abdullah accused the campaigners of Engineer Rashid of using soft separatism to woo voters. “Some of the slogans that have been used in his rallies are reminiscent of the slogans that were used around Burhan Wani (HM commander) time in 2016. Now, that’s not a constituency that I can appeal to. That’s not a constituency that will vote for me. More often than not, that’s not even a constituency that will vote,” he said.
The NC leader said that his party will never talk for just one prisoner as Rashid’s party does. “We will talk for all of them. The person you’re talking about, his campaign is all about himself. Our campaign is about the thousands of youngsters who have been in jail after 2019 and what we want to do to bring them back,” he added.
Abdullah said that the formation of the PAGD was an ideological battle and not about elections and accused the PDP of having self-interest and responsible for fighting against its constituents.
“For the PDP, clearly it was not ideological for them. It was self-interest. They wanted to see how best to get a seat or two seats or more from the NC, which is unfortunate,” he added.
The NC leader accused the PDP of having truck with the BJP in the same way that they had in 2014. “…Clearly, there is more to it than meets the eye. Perhaps similar to 2014, there is some hidden understanding that we will only learn about later. We learnt about the 2014 understanding from Altaf Bukhari because he left the PDP. Tomorrow, somebody else will leave her and we will learn about what understanding she has now,” he said.
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