Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 7: National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah has said that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was prepared to play a collaborator’s role in the abrogation of Article 370 along the lines of G. M. Sadiq, who had helped in abolishing the positions of the Prime Minister and Sadar-e-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir and became the State’s first Chief Minister in 1965.
Farooq Abdullah, while interacting with public delegations from Ganderbal and other areas across the Valley who called on him at NC Headquarters at Nawa-e-Subah in Srinagar said that a surreptitious political battle had been launched against Article 370 and the State of J&K by RSS and BJP. “What is most worrying is not the fact that the State has powerful enemies. What is tragic is the fact that there are internal collaborators and foes within our State who are ready to do the bidding of those who have pledged to abrogate Article 370 in their election manifesto”, Farooq said.
Farooq said that there were serious apprehensions in the hearts and minds of the people here about RSS’s long standing dream to do away with Article 370 – a cause in the defense of which Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah spent more than two decades in various Indian prisons.
“Sheikh Sahib gave us Article 370 for a reason and today we know the importance of Article 370. Those blaming National Conference for the erosion of Article 370 are either ignorant of history or are politically motivated. It was during the period of 1953 to 1975 that Article 370 was eroded while Sheikh Sahib was dismissed from the post of Prime Minister on August 9, 1953 for standing up for the aspirations of the people of J&K”, Farooq said.
Dr Abdullah said that Sheikh signed the Delhi Agreement in 1952 with the Central Government on Center-State relationships, providing for Autonomy of the State within India and of regions within the State. “However Sheikh was arrested in 1953 for standing up for the sentiments and aspirations of the people and pliant regimes were installed in J&K to facilitate the erosion of the State’s autonomous character. Damage done by G. M. Sadiq to Article 370 was the most grievous assault on the identity and autonomy of J&K and today the same Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who was a lieutenant of Sadiq when Sadiq eroded Article 370, is ready to fulfill what was left of their mission then”, Farooq said.
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