National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah Tuesday stated Jammu & Kashmir had acceded to secular India and not a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ while reiterating that Autonomy was the only workable solution to the Kashmir issue.According to KNS correspondent, while chairing the working committee meeting of district Ganderbal at party head quarters NC President said that GoI was bound to make provisions to grant Autonomy to Jammu & Kashmir and this was a guarantee that had time and again been clarified with the representatives from the government of India. He said that Autonomy remains the only constitutional remedy to Kashmir issue and there was nothing ‘unconstitutional’ about it.Denigrating the comments made by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in Jammu recently, Dr Farooq Abdullah said that Kashmir’s accession was to secular India not an India that calls itself a Hindu Rashtra. He lambasted the comments of Bhagwat and said, “The very basis of our relationship with India is based on secular nature of the country.”Dr Farooq Abdullah called his staunch belief in Autonomy as an achievable goal a ‘dream that will see light of the day’. “For the love I have for the people of this state, I will never show them a dream that cannot be fulfilled,” he said. He restated that Autonomy for the state of J&K was the political statement of his party and that the party would never barter it for anything else.
“Dialogue is the only way forward and Autonomy is the only real solution,” he said.He expressed angst against violence on both sides and retorted that force of any kind was not going to help either India or Pakistan. “Whose writ is this force going to establish?” Dr Farooq asked. He pleaded that both nations need to pull people out of the misery that the violence had pushed them into.While dismissing the ‘false propaganda’ spread by parties that he said were ready to ‘sell their soul for power’, Dr Farooq Abdullah said that history was a witness to the fact that Kashmir’s accession to India was conditional. “Karan Singh has been bold enough to clarify for all those spreading misgivings about our accession to India. He has said time and again said that his father acceded to India on the basis of three conditions.”He called upon the ‘people of Kashmir’ to be wary of people whose aim is to use divisive strategies to divide people. “We need to look inside at our conscience and reject the ideas of the conspirators. We need to rise to the occasion and expose the falsehood that is being spread against the party,” he said. He expressed confidence that people will help NC as ‘they have always done’. “This is the only party that has taken its birth from the blood of the martyrs, our own martyrs who laid their life down to fight oppression in Kashmir,” he said.
Among others who were present in the meeting include party General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, MLA Kangan Mian Altaf, Central Zone President and MLC Ali Mohammad Dar, MLA and District President Ganderbal Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, Sr Vice President Province Mohd Syed Akhoon, Provincial Secretary Showkat Mir and other provincial office bearers.Speaking on the occasion GS and MLA Khanyar Ali Mohammad Sagar reiterated party’s resolve of working for the people of the state against all the divisive forces. He asked the party cadre to maintain close contact with people on the ground.Castigating the present dispensation of PDP-BJP government of implementing the largest and ruthless crackdown ever in the history of Kashmir, MLA Kangan Mian Altaf said, “The amount of repression is such that PDP halqa president have taken over the role of DCs now and are forcing innocent Kashmiris to report to police stations on daily basis.”Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani while addressing the gathering said that such interactions will make the party stronger in respective areas and asked the party cadre to replicate such interactions at district level as well.Dr Farooq Abdullah patiently listened to suggestions put forward by the working committee members who highlighted many issues concerning the party. Dr Farooq Abdullah assured them all possible help in making the party more vibrant at grass root levels. (KNS)