Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 8: National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah today said the visit of an Election Commission of India team to Jammu and Kashmir shows the Centre’s willingness to hold Assembly elections here.
“If they were not ready (for Assembly elections), I do not think the Prime Minister or Home Minister and all the other Ministers would have announced that elections will take place,” he told reporters here.
“If they were not ready, they would not have said so and that is why the Election Commission is coming,” Abdullah said.
“We have to watch how that situation unfolds. It’s going to be a state and it can’t be run by one Lieutenant Governor,” he said in response to a question on the recent increased powers to LG.
He described the LG as the viceroy of Delhi, and said that the viceroyship died in 1947. “If they want to create new viceroys, then good luck to them,” he added.
He said Kashmir is the country’s starting point and there will be a problem in all of India if those ruling from Delhi continue with their current policies. “I warn the other states to be careful. Today, we are on the chopping board, tomorrow, you all will be there,” he said.
Asked whether he will be the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate, the NC president said the NC’s first priority was to win the election. “First, we must win the election. The party that wins will decide who will be the Chief Minister. It is a democratic country,” he said.
On his son Omar Abdullah losing to independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid in the Lok Sabha polls, the NC president said the person chanting pro-freedom slogans emerged victorious which should act as a warning for Delhi.
“It is a warning for Delhi that the man (Rashid) who won… What was his slogan? ‘Hum kya chahtay Azadi’ (we want freedom). So, there is a movement that does not want to be a part of Pakistan or India… Let us be honest about it. How much will you hide such things? It is for them to decide,” he said.
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