Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 28: The Vice President of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Omar Abdullah today said the rights of 14 million people were stripped away thereby inflicting a serious blow on the psyche of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He made these comments while addressing a series of election rallies in Tangmarg, Lolab and Halmatpora Kupwara as part of the ongoing campaign. The events were organized by the party’s contesting candidates Farooq Ahmed Shah, Qaiser Jamshed Lone and Nasir Aslam Wani.
“People of J&K once had the exclusive rights to the land, employment, education, rivers, forests, and other resources of Jammu and Kashmir. However, on August 5, 2019, our rights were forcefully stripped away and handed over to 1.4 billion people. The current BJP government is determined to put an official stamp on their actions in the Assembly. We have no other option but to stop them,” Omar said.
“A lot has been taken away from us, our dignity, our honor, our identity has been taken away from us. Before 2019, when there were Assembly elections, we had our own flag, we had our own constitution, Ladakh was our part, we had our own state, we had the right to our own land in the State, we had the right to our own employment, we had the right to rivers, mountains and forests. But PDP opened the doors for BJP here and finally on August 5, 2019, the rights of 1.4 cr people were taken away and given to 1 billion 40 crore people and the people here got nothing in return. People here have seen nothing but destruction, unemployment, despair. The last 10 years have been very upsetting for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. Click here to watch video
Omar Abdullah said that today BJP is using its full force by using some people to divide votes. “In the Parliamentary election, votes were asked from the people of North Kashmir based on emotions and people voted emotionally, it is different that Engineer Rashid won with their votes but he was not released, today the people of North Kashmir have no representation in the Parliament while our two MPs are getting applauded in the Parliament.”
Omar Abdullah said that Engineer Rashid has not been released to represent North Kashmir but only for 20 days so that he can divide votes of the people here. He said that in the FIR in which Rashid was arrested, the names of Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and Asia Andrabi Sahiba are also included in the same FIR, then why are they not allowed to come out? It is something to think about.
On the one hand, Engineer Rashid says that he is against Modi’s new Kashmir model, while on the other hand, he is fielding candidates in Sonawari, Beerwah and other constituencies, who are led by BJP and who have been here for the past 5 years running their agenda.
He appealed to the voters of Kashmir that there is no room for error, the vote in the Assembly elections is directly related to the future generations, if the vote is misused, God forbid, the future of this State will get ruined.