Reminding the top NC leadership that former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah was jailed for anti-national remarks in 1953, a BJP leader in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday said those raising "similar anti-national remarks" should be booked under sedition and banned from contesting polls. Two-time minister Sham Lal Sharma, who recently resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP, also accused his former party of being in a "habit of backing anti-Indian forces", saying its promise to amend the AFSPA in militancy-hit Kashmir will only embolden militants."We appeal to the state government that those leaders who making anti-national statements every now and then, should be booked under the sedition law so that they will desist from such remarks," Sharma told the gathering during a rally in the border district of Poonch.Sharma said that those leaders who make anti-national statements should barred from contesting both parliamentary and assembly elections. "If the Kashmir-based leaders are raising anti-India statement, they should face the sedition law", he said.Sham reminded these leaders, without naming NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, that in 1953, Sheikh Abdullah made similar anti-national statements for which he was imprisoned for over a decade.
"After realizing that no fruitful purpose will be served by waging war against the country, he came to the terms and joined the mainstream and was made the chief minister of the state and took oath under Constitution of India", Sham said.The former minister expressed his deep anger over the statement of the former chief minister and NC chief Farooq Abdullah in which he said that in case Article 370 is abrogated, Kashmir will get freedom from India.Sham said, "such a statement made by the leaders is against the unity and the integrity of the country and amounts to sedition". He said that all people in the Valley are not anti-nationals like "such leaders".The BJP leader alleged that these people, while in power, talk so much about nationalism but when out of power, they give such statements in desperation. "They have no love or loyalty towards there voters but have a lust for power. By making such statements, the real face of the communal approach of the National Conference has come in the open," he said.Sham challenged NC president Farooq Abdullah, who said if Article 370 is abrogated, Kashmir's relation with India will end, saying Kashmir doesn't belong to Abdullahs and that there was no provision for the secession of any territory from India. (PTK)