Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 8: Rubbishing the claim made by the National Conference general secretary that the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was not a party to the 1975 accord, People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) today said denial of their actions was nothing new for the house of Abdullahs.
In a press statement the party chief spokesperson Naeem Akhtar said such backtracking came naturally to NC leadership as they thrived only in the grey space of Kashmir politics while the people of the State suffered as a result of their acts of omission and commission. He said it is inconceivable that the accord could have been only a handiwork of the late ‘Beg Saheb’ without participation of ‘Sheikh Saheb’ though its only objective was installing ‘Sheikh Saheb’ as Chief Minister and making way for his successors to the throne.
Advocate Sheikh Nazir Ahmed claimed in an interview to a Kashmir based English Daily today that ‘Sheikh Saheb’ was not directly involved in the 1975 exercise. it was Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg and G Parthasarthy who were talking to each other”.
Akhtar said the virtual disowning of 1975 accord by the Abdullah family as some kind of an underhand act of the late Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg was yet another specimen of betrayal of a close associate of the late Sheikh but that was not its only import. ” This is an attempt at rewriting history to divert attention from the latest phase of NC seeking salvation and survival as an appendage of Congress which obviously raises questions about its claims to a regional character”, he said.
The PDP leader said denying a historical fact was nothing new for the NC as the party denied even having been a party to accession after enjoying power without elections for five years raising the banner of plebiscite. He said though during its rule between 1947 and 1953 the NC leadership let loose a reign of terror, exiling and imprisoning opponents on charges of being
Pakistani agents and ‘arresting’ radio sets, the NC leadership made a volte face and misled people in the name of plebiscite. “The accord of 1975 was another U-turn through which NC secured power once again without elections and accepted all the erosion in State’s autonomous character. Not only this, the NC leadership even gave away the right to make changes in the nomenclature of the Governor and Chief Minister under State Constitution in July 1975, only five months after the accord” Akhtar said.
Akhtar said NC had to make a choice between power and pursuing the autonomy resolution passed by the State Assembly and it did not bat an eyelid in making its choice. He said NC continued to whip the autonomy horse even when it was an alliance partner of BJP Dal for whom the scrapping of Article 370 constitutes basic agenda.
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