Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 30: National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah today cautioned New Delhi against excessive use of force and repression against the people, saying that unless Kashmir is recognized as a political problem, peace will remain elusive.
“For lasting peace and stability, dialogue process is needed to be initiated forthwith”, Dr Abdullah said while addressing an election meeting at Budgam this afternoon.
He said that the Kashmir issue has been recognized at the international level and therefore talks should be initiated with Pakistan and the people of Kashmir for judicious solution. He called for involving all the stake holders to find out a way forward so that the current spell of bloodshed is stopped.
Dr Farooq said, “our hearts are bleeding when the blood of young people is spilled during broad day light with security forces not caring for human rights violations”. He said “use of disproportionate force will take us nowhere. There is need to understand that young people’s urges and aspirations have to be met, who feel pushed to the wall. But the Government at the Centre, in mistaken belief, prefers force over compassion and understanding towards the problems of youth. If New Delhi thinks that use of pellet guns would help restore peace, they are living in fools world”.
“If successive Governments in New Delhi would not have betrayed the people of Kashmir by not keeping their promise, the situation would not have come to prevailing passé”, he said and expressed dismay over political instability, economic disaster and above all fear among the people.
Lashing out at PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, the National Conference president wondered over her hypocrisy saying that when out of power she used to shed crocodile tears while visiting the slain militants houses but now she underplays, and unfortunately mocks the peaceful protests by the people. He said Valley is passing through most difficult phase and unless immediate measures are not taken to assuage the political aspirations of the people, Kashmir will continue to bleed.
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah today said Mehbooba Mufti’s report card reflected her “anti-people and anti-Kashmir policies” and had completely exposed her rhetoric while she was in the opposition.
Addressing a well attended workers’ convention in Khanyar, Srinagar, Omar said the PDP-BJP Alliance that was forged solely for the goal of power had proved to be a disaster for the people of Kashmir.
“Mehbooba Mufti’s report – even in the brief time that she has been the Chief Minister – has broken all records of atrocities, treachery and ruthlessness. With nearly a hundred youth having been mowed down in the recent unrest and hundreds more blinded and handicapped, the same Mehbooba Mufti who sat on dharnas against arrests in the opposition ended up imposing almost nine-hundred cases of Public Safety Acts (PSAs) on the youth. Nearly eleven thousand youth were arrested and night-raids were carried out to harass and intimidate the people”, Omar said.
The NC working president said that besides the unprecedented scale and measure of atrocities committed against civilians in 2016, the PDP-BJP Government also launched an all out attack on Article 370 through the judicial route and left no stone unturned to give West Pakistan Refugees domicile certificates as an attempt to alter the demography of the State. “Ever since the PDP-BJP Alliance was forged, this State has been enveloped in an air of uncertainty and hopelessness. The PDP-BJP Alliance hasn’t been able to deliver on one single promise that it had made in the ‘Agenda of the Alliance’. Development has come to a grinding halt and corruption has become a norm. This Government has failed to dispense even its most basic responsibilities”, the NC working president said.
“Mehbooba Mufti says she is seeking votes on the basis of her report-card and performance. One wonders if she is asking for votes for getting nearly a hundred youth killed or for blinding hundreds more? Is she asking for votes for arresting nearly eleven thousand youth or is she seeking votes for her attempts to create Sainik Colonies and Segregated Townships in Kashmir? Her alliance hasn’t left a single stone unturned in achieving its goal of abrogating Article 370 and robbing the State of Jammu and Kashmir of its special Constitutional status. Are these Mehbooba Mufti’s achievements or the fact that she didn’t allow the people of Kashmir to offer Nimaz on Eid?”, Omar asked.
“Fact of the matter is that Mehbooba Mufti has chosen to align with the same party that rewarded communalism, bigotry and hate-mongering in Uttar Pradesh by making Yogi Adityanath the Chief Minister of India’s most populous State. This is not the BJP of Atal Bihari Vajpayee but a BJP that believes in furthering its agenda of majoritarianism and muscular nationalism where all minorities are viewed through the prism of suspicion and discrimination. These policies of the BJP are dangerous and can have long-term adverse implications for peace and stability in the country. Unfortunately PDP has chosen to work for the BJP and has given BJP the cover of being in an alliance with a regional party in India’s only Muslim-majority State. PDP’s sole mission is to glorify the BJP and serve at the pleasure of the Sangh Parivar” the National Conference leader said.
He added that PDP has not only humiliated, persecuted and killed the youth of Kashmir but has also mocked their pain and misery. “This is the same party that openly blamed the victims for getting killed and Mehbooba Mufti’s ‘tofees and milk’ taunt went on to rub salt on the wounds of grieving, mourning families. We clearly remember how in the All Parties Meeting in New Delhi, PDP senior leader and MP Muzaffar Baigh accused the youth of Kashmir for selling their conscience and lives for a pair of ‘shalwar kameez’ and asked the Central Government to desists from talking to the alienated youth”, he added.
Omar asked people to come out and vote in large numbers against the PDP-BJP-RSS alliance and send a strong message of resilience to those who were out to rob us of our rights and sense of dignity. “Not voting in these elections would amount to helping the PDP-BJP-RSS combine and would be a great disservice to our people. It is our collective responsibility to ensure the PDP-BJP-RSS alliance is defeated and the State’s interests and rights safeguarded”, he added.
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