History will remember PDP as an extension of RSS: Farooq

NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah addressing party workers at a convention at Ganderbal on Thursday.
NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah addressing party workers at a convention at Ganderbal on Thursday.

Excelsior Correspondent

GANDERBAL, Apr 6: Accusing ruling People’s Democratic Party of selling the blood of innocent Kashmiris for its own ruthless political ambitions, National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah today said that history would remember PDP as an extension of RSS in Kashmir.
“These people who came to power on the promise of stopping the march of saffron party from conquering Kashmir went on to sell their conscience to the same BJP. For the temptation of power, PDP has sold our honour and our dignity and has done so without an iota of shame or regret. What we saw in 2016 was an expression of anger and resentment against PDP and those forces that covertly supported PDP in the 2014 Parliament and Assembly elections”, Farooq Abdullah said while addressing party workers and supporters at a convention in Ganderbal.
Claiming that history would remember PDP as an extension of RSS into Kashmir, he said people would never forgive it for the heinous, brutal and repressive role it played in facilitating the ‘epidemic of dead eyes’ in the Valley. “Sixty five young Kashmiris have lost vision in both eyes because of this Government’s insensitivity and brutality. Hundreds more have lost partial vision and thousands have sustained grievous injuries while the Chief Minister infamously taunted grieving parents about their dead children having gone to Army camps to ‘buy toffees and milk’. What could be more shameful and despicable than this?” Farooq Abdullah said.
“This election is not an ordinary election between National Conference and PDP. This election is a historic battle of honour and dignity between the people of Kashmir and the RSS. The same RSS which doesn’t believe in the principles of the Constitution those extend the same rights to every religious group without any discrimination. This, in ways more than one, is a battle of our dignified survival against an alliance of opportunism that has humiliated the people of Kashmir and become a source of agony and embarrassment for them”, he added.
Justifying his remark on the US statement extending an offer of mediation to India and Pakistan, Farooq said that for seventy years, both the neighbouring countries have failed to resolve the Kashmir issue and have taken the people of Kashmir for granted. “For how long will we watch our children lose their lives while New Delhi and Islamabad choose to offer little beyond lip-service and rhetoric to us? I implore both New Delhi and Islamabad to consider all possible options, including an offer of mediation, to try and resolve this long pending issue that has consumed thousands of lives. Had India and Pakistan showed seriousness and commitment in resolving this issue, the question of third-party mediation wouldn’t have been raised today. So before blaming me or them, it is time for introspection in New Delhi”, he said.
Dr Farooq Abdullah also addressed a workers’ convention later at Chuntliwar, Ganderbal .The conventions were also addressed by NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani and MLA Ganderbal Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar. The NC leaders asked people to vote in large numbers to ensure the victory of their collective honour over candidates fielded by the BJP and RSS under the mask of PDP.