Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad Wednesday said Congress had no role in hanging parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, who was executed in Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013.Talking to KNS, Azad said the Congress had no role in executing Afzal and it was the judiciary which took its own course. He also trained guns against the regional parties here.Without naming National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the former chief minister said that the parties having no agenda of development strive to find some issues through they could exploit the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “I want to ask these parties that how long you are going to exploit the people of the state. The main and the serious issue here in the state is development and peace. These regional parties find it easy to pert peoples’ attention from such issues,” Azad said.
Over the reports of the BJP trying to forge an alliance with the regional parties here, Azad said that whosoever would align with the Saffron party would witness political death. “This is going to be the party’s last elections that would forge alliance with the BJP. BJP is the poison that kills whosoever consumes it. I don’t think any person is that much foolish to go with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir,” he told KNS.Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Srinagar rally, Azad said that no development on ground has so far been witnessed by the people that the BJP has undertaken. He claimed that Modi talks much and delivers nothing.Over forging alliance with other parties for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir post elections, the veteran Congress leader said that the decision will be taken after the results. “We don’t even think over forging alliance with any party here. We are confident that we will sweep the state elections this time,” he stressed.
Azad also maintained that Congress will decide the chief minister through the democratic process and it is the decision made by the legislators and not by any inpidual. Over the reports that Congress this time again has accorded mandates to the ministers against whom charges were registered, Azad said, “In the state wherein commissions and courts function independently, if a person is convicted, he will be dismissed from the party.”He said that both PDP and NC worked for the state only when Congress supported them both at centre and state levels. “It was the UPA-I, UPA-II which approved funds for the development of the state. The successive regimes in the state would not have functioned, had there not been the Congress support with them.”
Asked why Congress was criticizing the NC despite having coalition with the party for the last six years, Azad said, “It is the responsibility of the chief minister to control the state and not to shrug his shoulders at any time in any way. It is the head of the state who is responsible for whatever happens in the state. He cannot just pass the buck to others and get away. I have been the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and know how the affairs of the state are handled.”Over the ongoing polls in Jammu and Kashmir, Azad claimed that during the first phase of polls, Congress has swept all the assembly segments and during the second and the third one, the party has done well than others in the state.He also claimed BJP will not win even a single seat from Ladakh and Kashmir valley while as in Jammu, the party would not cross more than 10 seats.