JAMMU:
National Conference working president Omar Abdullah today launched a sharp attack on PDP-BJP coalition Government on issues like AFSPA and Article 370 saying the common agenda spelt out by the ruling alliance was only aimed at “fooling” the people of the State.
Playing the role of opposition leader in the State Assembly, 45-year-old Omar, former Chief Minister of the State, took a dig at BJP over Article 370 saying “the special status (of Jammu and Kashmir), which has been eroded (in the past), cannot be further eroded.
“You (BJP and PDP) cannot scrap Article 370 from the State of Jammu and Kashmir”, Omar, who was speaking on the Motion of Thanks on Governor’s address, said.
He also took on PDP saying the party was projecting BJP’s “silence” on the Article as “some gift” from BJP. “It is their (BJP’s) compulsion. Even the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was silent on it,” he said.
BJP knows that they cannot scrap Article 370, Omar, who spoke for nearly 50 minutes, said.
He tore into the claims of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s party who had held his father Farooq Abdullah responsible for imposition of controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Omar, who was the first Kashmiri leader to demand partial revocation of AFSPA from areas where militancy-related incidents were nil or bare minimum, said “I had tried a lot for revocation of AFSPA and felt it will be started during my rule. But it did not materialize. I feel sorry that I couldn’t do it. But what did you bring from the Centre in agenda for common alliance?” he said.
“If Farooq Abduallh Government took a cabinet decision and forwarded it to the then Governor who approved it and AFSPA was implemented, you have numbers and support of BJP to reverse the process and start removing AFSPA from some areas,” he said. (AGENCIES)
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