Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Dec 14: Former Chief Minister and working president of opposition National Conference (NC), Omar Abdullah, today warned that attempts would be made to derail the Indo-Pak dialogue process and said there was a need to thwart any such attempts.
The NC working president said this to reporters after inaugurating the renovated headquarters of the party which was damaged during the floods last year and in a fire incident.
The former CM said that all attempts aimed at derailing the dialogue process should be made unsuccessful. “What we will have to do most is to insulate this dialogue because many attempts will be made to derail this process. Many attempts will be made to make this dialogue unsuccessful. Our endeavour should be to make all such attempts unsuccessful,” he said.
Omar welcomed the beginning of Indo-Pak talks process and said that it does not matter where the talks took place. “It is good that talks have restarted. I have no objection that we had to talk in a third country. It’s okay that we held talks in Bangkok and not in Delhi or Islamabad. At least the process of dialogue has been started,” he said.
He said he is waiting for comprehensive dialogue between the two countries. “Our Foreign Minister visited Islamabad and talks were restarted there. There was an announcement of holding a comprehensive dialogue. Now, we will wait for the shaping up of this comprehensive dialogue,” he added.
Omar said that Jammu and Kashmir is a party to the talks even if India and Pakistan would not make it a party on their own. “We are already a party. We are a party to this issue since this issue is there…We want dialogue,” he said.
The former CM said the Kashmir issue could be resolved only when there are talks on its internal and external dimensions. “I will not get into whether this has to be a tripartite or bipartite dialogue. There are two parts of Jammu and Kashmir issue – one is internal between New Delhi and the State and the other external between New Delhi and Islamabad. This issue can be resolved only when there are talks on both the tracks”, he said.
Omar urged the Narendra Modi Government to start dialogue with the State, the way it has started with Pakistan. “Right now the dialogue is on a single track and the talks have been started between New Delhi and Islamabad, but the talks between New Delhi and the state are also important. We are not seeing any development on that,” he said.
Earlier, in his address to the party workers, Omar said that only the NC could save Jammu and Kashmir from imminent political harm as a consequence of the “unholy” PDP-BJP alliance that was forged with the sole intention of attaining political power. He said the PDP-BJP Government in the State had been exposed as a complete failure as misgovernance and corruption had become endemic in the State within just the first year of its tenure.
“Tall promises of the PDP-BJP Government both on the governance front as well as the political front have been exposed as hollow. There isn’t a single area or locality in the State today where people are not out on the roads protesting against the Government’s inefficiency and insensitivity. As for the political promises, the promises of AFSPA revocation, return of power projects, talks with separatists and the alleged ‘battle of ideas’ – every single promise has been abandoned”,Omar said.
He said there is not a single flood victim in the State who has received fair or adequate compensation from the Government and every single affected victim had to dig into his own pockets to make their homes inhabitable again.
“When the State was ravaged by the devastating floods in September 2014, National Conference sought a deferment of the Assembly elections with a considered, humanitarian view that the rehabilitation of the flood victims should be the first priority of the Administration and Government machinery at that time. We were the only party to take this stand while other parties portrayed this as our selfishness in remaining at the helm of affairs. Other political parties wanted their own political rehabilitation before the rehabilitation of the flood victims. At that time, I knew the State Government should try and get as many relief and rehabilitation funds from the Central Government as possible before the Assembly Elections in the State knowing well that the BJP-led Central Government, especially after the imminent failure of its Mission 44+ in J&K, would be less inclined to approve a Comprehensive Flood Package post elections. Sadly other political parties chose partisan politics over this enormous humanitarian disaster and PDP was at the forefront of this insensitive betrayal with the flood victims”, the NC working president said.
Omar said that Central Government charged money from the State Government even for helicopters that were used for rescue and relief work. “We got a whopping bill of Rs 550 crores for those helicopters. New Delhi didn’t pay for a single nut-bolt in those rescue and relief operations. When you compare this sad reality to the tall rhetoric and flowery speeches of the Prime Minister, you cannot help but be disappointed”, he added.
“Today our shopkeepers are literally broke and struggling to keep their shops open and running. The local economy is in a state of ruin and stagnation. Neither does the consumer have the money to buy nor does the vendor have the money to buy inventory to stock his shop. Banks have come knocking on the doors of entrepreneurs and business owners asking for their EMIs. Loan recoveries have started and those who lost everything in the floods are being expected to repay not only their loans but also the entire interest amounts despite PDP having promised widespread loan and interest waiver for flood victims as a hollow election promise”, the former CM said.
The NC Working President said Rs 80,000 crore Central Package had proved to be old wine in an old bottle with nothing substantial for the flood victims. “When the package was announced, people clapped in appreciation assuming the Central Government had gone far and above the Rs 40,000 crore proposed package that was submitted and demanded by the previous Government. However, when we opened the newspapers the next day and investigated the contents of the package we realized that not only was this old wine but it was also packaged in an old bottle. Only the label was changed. The UPA label was taken down and the NDA label was put in its place. How do funds for the National Highway, for the Zojila Tunnel or for the Solar Project in Ladakh aim to benefit the flood victims? Barely Rs 2,000 crores, if at all – directly and indirectly have been allocated for the flood victims. The abandonment of the flood victims has come to be the sadistic hallmark of the Government”, he said.
Omar while responding to a question said State Government should take strict action against all illegal constructions at various tourist resorts to preserve their beauty and promote tourism.
“On one hand our Chief Minister says that we have to get tourists here, while on the other, those areas, where we have to take the tourists, are being destroyed slowly. If we continue to destroy the beauty of these areas, a day will come when no one will go to see those places. The present Government will have to deal sternly with these and save the beauty of Sonamarg, Gulmarg, Pahalgam and other places,” the former CM said.
Omar said people have resorted to illegal constructions despite Court orders and it was “obvious” the administration was hand-in-glove with the violators.”The High Court had granted permission for minor repairs but people erected plinths and huge buildings in the name of minor repairs. It is obvious that, at some level, the administration is involved in all this,” he said.
The NC working president said the State Government must act against the violators without political considerations. “There should be no political considerations. If there have been illegal constructions anywhere – even during my rule or before or after that – then there should be action against those illegal constructions,” he said.
Omar said the State witnessed the damage done by such constructions during the last year’s flood. “We saw how much we suffered by these constructions during the floods of 2014. There was flood in Chennai and the reason for the flooding of Chennai is also these illegal constructions.
“We cannot hide behind the Courts. We hide behind the Courts and think that when there is a direction from the Courts, we will implement that. We should not wait for the Courts. This is not the job of the Courts, but ours. We have to leave behind politics and all other things, and take steps to save our cities and towns,” the former CM said.
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