‘Let there be a White Paper to bring out facts’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 3: The People’s Conference of Sajjad Ghani today launched a massive counter attack on National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah saying his hands were “drenched with blood of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, who have lost their lives due to NC’s opportunistic politics and the party’s insatiable thirst for power at any cost”.
The People’s Conference launched major tirade against Farooq a day after latter charged Sajjad Lone’s father late Abdul Ghani Lone of bringing “gun culture in Kashmir”.
The contents of People’s Conference hard hitting statement against Dr Abdullah were attributed to a party spokesman and not to Lone himself.
The spokesman said that Farooq should introspect as to how the costs of his “treachery, rank opportunism and ideological ambiguity” have been borne by the people of Kashmir over the past many decades.
“While Dr Abdullah’s utterances can’t be taken seriously as he has an uncanny ability to contradict himself with every passing fortnight, it is pertinent to put the record straight. The election of 1987, which was “rigged” to impose Farooq on the people of Kashmir, was a collective murder that has spread over three bloody decades and cost us nearly one lakh innocent lives till now,” the statement said.
“Every single Kashmiri will testify as to how Farooq Abdullah’s thirst to become Chief Minister threw the State into the throes of turmoil and suffering. He walked over thousands of dead bodies to again assume power in 1996. That was the second mass murder he committed. There is still no closure to the 1987 rigging. The violence which started after the rigging is yet to end,” the spokesman added.
He went on: “Farooq might not believe us but he must ask his newfound friend – the PDP about NC’s role in pushing Kashmir’s youth towards militancy. The PDP has repeatedly reminded Farooq in the recent past (Including statements from Mehbooba Mufti) – it was he who was responsible for creating the Syed Salahuddins of Kashmir. His newfound allies have – on numerous occasions – said this on the floor of the Assembly and this is not far from the truth. Maybe it is time for the PDP also to spell out whether they still believe that 1987 rigged elections were one of the main causes of drift towards violence, which is yet to end.”
The spokesman said that many attempts were made prior to 1987 to bring in the gun into Kashmir but failed.
“The 1987 elections rigging scripted the conduciveness and the receptiveness for gun in Kashmir. And now they have the audacity to accuse those who were victims of rigging,” the spokesman said, adding that the rigging of 1987 was done to protect the dynastic rule of the Abdullahs at an unimaginable cost of pushing a peaceful heaven like Kashmir into the vortex of violence and the present show of togetherness exhibited by NC and PDP is yet again an attempt to protect the old and the new dynasty.
The spokesman said that Farooq’s promises on defending Article 370 in an alliance with the PDP and the Congress were ridiculous.
“NC has been an ever-ready accomplice in the erosion of the State’s special status. They have overtly and covertly facilitated every machination and intrigue hatched against the State. The same Congress that he wanted to ally with recently and has allied with on numerous occasions in the past – has written and enacted every single script of erosion of Article 370 and disempowerment in the State. As for the PDP — the same NC told us that PDP was an ‘RSS Trojan Horse’ till yesterday and that the PDP was recruited to weaken the State from within. One wonders how things suddenly changed for Farooq Abdullah and how he expects the people to believe that his party’s desperation against an alternative political force is somehow purportedly a valiant fight for the State’s special status?”, the spokesman said.
He added that NC and PDP are “good separatists when out of power and corrupt mainstreamers” when in power.
“As far as this rhetoric about restoration of autonomy is concerned – NC was never serious about autonomy and remembers it in seasonal circles when it is out of power. While in power the party becomes an absolute unionist in its outlook as humanly possible. NC has been a co-architect in the erosion of Article 370. As demanded by Omar Abdullah in the past – let there be white paper on the turmoil in Kashmir. Let there be a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and let us fix responsibility for the pain and suffering our people have endured. Let us tell the people when Article 370 was eroded and who was responsible for this”, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said Farooq Abdullah’s ridiculous statement that he will ‘expose’ more of our ‘deeds’ at the appropriate time indicates his desperation and anxiety at the rise of Peoples Conference.
“We haven’t even disclosed 2% of his misdeeds, brazen cases of corruption, complicity in injustices against Kashmir and atrocities against its people. The day we decide to do so would be a very ominous day for National Conference and its “Twitter Vice President” (a reference towards Omar Abdullah) as well – who is stoically lording over estates and wealth of thousands of crores earned on the graves of our people,” the People’s Conference spokesman said.