Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 17: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today asked the National Conference president, Dr Farooq Abdullah to stop harping about autonomy and accept that his party is fast turning irrelevant.
The BJP spokesman, Khalid Jehangir, in a statement here said, “Dr Farooq is raising the autonomy bogey to seek attention and remain in the news. It seems after losing power NC is making desperate attempts to hoodwink the people by selling old wine in the new bottle.”
He said, ” NC cannot befool people by raising hollow slogans as they know it very well that NC did nothing to restore JK’s autonomy when it was in power. The Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had rejected the autonomy resolution out rightly in 2000 when Dr Farooq was the Chief Minister of the State. After the resolution was rejected Dr Farooq remained silent and stuck to his chair. Had he been sincere he would have tendered his resignation then and there only.”
Referring to the recent statement where in Dr Farooq had appealed Kashmir based legal fraternity to come forward and preserve the State’s special status, Khalid Jehangir said, ” Dr Farooq should stop enacting dramas and see the writing on the wall. Kashmiris are fed up of the hollow slogans and mere rhetoric. People of Kashmir want to live with India. They are not interested in autonomy and Azadi. Kashmiris want to live a prosperous life and flourish.”
The BJP spokesman said, “people like Dr Farooq Abdullah and others have shown enough dreams to masses. Time has come for dream merchants to wind up their shops and allow people to live peacefully.”
He said, “NC is facing a humiliating defeat in 2014 Parliamentary and Assembly polls have frustrated its leaders and they are unable to digest that NC is fast turning into a history.”