Chief Minister and National Conference Working President Omar Abdullah Thursday while addressing the issue of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) said that National Conference would not rest until the law is completely revoked from the State.While addressing election rallies in Tral, Uri and Baramulla on Thursday, Omar also lashed at out BJP for its ‘communal vitriol against minorities’ in India and Kashmiris in particular and said that the trend of BJP leaders ‘unabashedly abusing minorities and humiliating Kashmiris was extremely alarming.’“AFSPA has to go. Nobody – neither in Delhi nor in Srinagar – should have any doubt about this. I have sought the revocation of AFSPA as an elected Chief Minister of this State, I have made my stand known on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and National Conference has been consistent in its demand to see laws like AFSPA revoked. It is also a fact that the State President of our coalition partner publically opposed the revocation of AFSPA by saying that such an initiative would be premature. It is also a fact that PDP chose to sabotage the revocation of AFSPA by scuttling our efforts to build a consensus on this move. The same BJP which speaks of creating a conducive atmosphere for the revocation of the law today went into a jingoistic frenzy every single time National Conference approached the UPA Government over AFSPA” he said.
Omar said PDP’s ‘apologetic stand’ on AFSPA was explicable given that it was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who imposed AFSPA in J&K as the then Home Minister of India. “How can PDP not be apologetic on AFSPA revocation when the Act’s imposition in the State is a brainchild of their patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed? We understand PDP’s compulsions and constraints in choosing political, partisan expediency over siding with the people on AFSPA but also assure them that National Conference will single-handedly fight for the revocation of AFSPA against all odds till the day the law isn’t revoked from the State”, the NC Working President said.
“I’m also specially at how Congress is trying to stay afloat in the State by playing the victim card and pretending that they were a suppressed part of the NC-Congress coalition government. Nothing could be more ridiculous than this. Not only did Congress have most of the works portfolios in the NC-Congress Government, they also got more space in policy decisions than was mandated by the numbers they bagged in the elections of 2008. Yes we opposed the Food Security Bill adaption as proposed by the Congress and we are very proud for having succeeding in thwarting the bill as it would have deprived around two million people from within the State of free and subsidized food grains.
The Congress opposed the creation of the New Administrative Units and the conduct of Municipal Elections at regular intervals. As opposed to what the Congress party might like to imagine today, if anything has let Congress Party down in J&K it is their own Ministers and Leaders who have fallen short of all possible political, moral and professional expectations,” Omar added.He asked the people to cast their precious votes in favor of Mohammad Shafi Uri in Uri and Ghulam Hassan Rahi in Baramulla and be part of a movement to protect the dignity and political stature of our beloved State. “Your votes in favor of our candidates will be votes in favor of our collective honor as a State that has rendered far too many sacrifices to allow political marauders and communal polarizers to harm our interests and trivialize our aspirations”, Omar added.
The election rallies and road shows were also addressed by senior NC leader and party’s candidate from Uri, Mohammad Shafi Uri, party’s candidate from Baramulla, Ghulam Hassan Rahi and party’s candidate from Tral, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat.