Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President, Mehbooba Mufti today said having unceremoniously dumped his rhetorical AFSPA revocation demand, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was now trying to blame everybody except himself for his ‘countless failures and follies.’“Unfortunately, Omar Abdullah’s wavering stance on crucial issues during the past six years has reduced the CM’s post to a mockery,” Mehbooba said while addressing an election rally here to enlist support for the party candidate Nazir Ahmad Laway.Accusing Omar of never having made a serious effort for the revocation of AFSPA, Mehbooba said, “Let Omar come up with a single communication, he has made with the Government of India during the past six years for revocation of the controversial law. He must know that the Government’s don’t function through rhetoric and verbal acrobatics, but call for tangible action.”
“It was only on the persuasion of PDP Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, through a series of communications with the then Prime Minister, that in June 2007 a committee headed by the Defence Minister was constituted to undertake a holistic review of the controversial law. However, due to lack of follow-up by the successive governments in the State, no headway could be made on the issue,” she said,” she added.Mehbooba said Omar had announced revocation of AFSPA “within two or three days” on October 21, 2011, in the aftermath of “(NC worker) Haji Yousuf’s death in suspicious circumstances.” “After that, the Chief Minister has been regularly diluting his stand on this important issue,” she said and added that while on October 21, he claimed that AFSPA will be revoked within two days, then he said he will revoke the law after Durbar move. “Mr Omar later stated that the law shall be revoked in his tenure and then he said it has become his life time mission,” she said.
The PDP president said Omar continued to raise AFSPA as a slogan to cover his “failures on every front” and after dumping the issue for good, he is now trying to shift the blame on others including PDP. “As the chief minister of the State, Omar Abdullah was always well within his powers to revoke AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir. All he had to do was to withdraw the Disturbed Areas Act, the AFSPA would have automatically gone,” she said and added that throughout his disastrous 6-year tenure Omar Abdullah just kept on dishing out non-serious statements about the revocation of the black laws.Mehbooba said no wonder Omar would tomorrow blame PDP even for the hanging of Afzal Guru, which was “facilitated by him to help his friends in the Congress.” “He is now even vainly trying to shift the blame of 120 innocent killings during 2010 unrest on others,” she said.
Referring to the local issues Mehbooba said devastated by September floods, people in Kulgam and its adjoining areas have, like other flood-affected areas, become the victims of ‘callousness’ of the government headed by Omar Abdullah.She said the next government to be headed, God willing, by PDP would ensure comprehensive rehabilitation of the flood-affected households including the agriculturists and orchardists, who have suffered immense losses due to the deluge.She said given its horticulture potential food processing units would be established in the area, not only to give fillip to the local economy but boost the employment avenues as well.PDP candidate for Kulgam assembly segment Nazir Ahmad Laway also addressed the rallies.