Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday blamed the National Conference Patron Dr Farooq Abdullah and late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of pushing Kashmiri youth to the edge and forcing them to take up the arms. In a statement here the BJP spokesman Khalid Jehangir said, “Those who are projecting themselves as Messiahs of Kashmiris are responsible for the bloodshed and the turmoil which Jammu and Kashmir witnessed during the past 25-years.”Jehangir said, “Infamous Farooq-Rajiv accord in late eighties and large scale rigging in the assembly elections in 1987 turned the youth hostile following which they were forced to take up the arms.”
The BJP spokesman said that it’s strange that NC and Congress that pushed JK to edge and turned people who contested 1987 elections into militants and separatists are giving sermons on tolerance and secularism today. “BJP wants to remind the NC and Congress leaders that they are the ones who pushed Jammu and Kashmir into quagmire of uncertainty,” he added. Jehangir said, “BJP believes in sab-ka-vikas , sab-ke-saath. By announcing Rs 80,000 crore packages for the development of Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister has proved his sincerity and has kept up his promise to take Jammu and Kashmir to the new horizons. The huge financial package announced by the Prime Minister has left the NC and Congress dumfounded. They have got a befitting reply and has proved their begging bow theory wrong.”
“ Since 1947 huge funds have been pumped into Jammu and Kashmir but these funds have gone into the coffers of NC and Congress leaders. Dr Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah used to visit New Delhi with a begging bowl for their own sake and fill their own chests, and not for the people,” Jehangir alleged. He said, “This is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that Rs 80,000 Crore have been provided to the state without anyone from JK approaching the Centre with a begging bowl,” Jehangir said. (KNS)