Omar says Mufti is dancing to the tunes from Nagpur
◆‘Agenda for Alliance is PDP’s total sell-out for power’
◆‘Let Cabinet revoke AFSPA, send file to Governor. Why bring Delhi in everything?’
◆‘Not a single Kashmiri has returned from Pak during Modi regime’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
_______
Jammu, March 19: Former Chief Minister and the opposition National Conference leader in the Legislative Assembly in the Indian-administered State of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, on Thursday alleged that the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which has formed the government in an alliance with Bharatya Janata Party, and its Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed were taking diktats from Nagpur---headquarters of the Hindu fundamentalist outfit Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh [RSS], and undermining the State’ special constitutional status in exchange for power.
Speaking for about 50 minutes on Governor’s address and the ruling coalition’s Minimum Common Programme, titled “Agenda of Alliance”, in the Assembly, Abdullah maintained that Mufti and his PDP had compromised the Stat’s dignity and special status, besides the peoples’ interest, “only for gaining the power”. He asserted that Mufti had done total reversal of what he and other leaders of his party had been telling and promising the Kashmiris since 1999.
Abdullah pointed out that the coalition’s “Agenda of Alliance” carried nothing of the PDP’s plank of ‘Self Rule’ which Mufti’s party had been projecting as the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir crisis. “Where’s your Self Rule, joint control mechanism, double currency, release of political detainees et al ?”, Abdullah asked the Treasury Benches.
“We were worried that you would wipe us out and deny us even 5 seats in the next elections by holding the talks with the BJP for some time and finally withdrawing with the assertion that the BJP had no regard for the State’s special position and political aspiration. But we in the NC and Congress were relieved when you compromised everything for the Chief Minister’s chair for six years and the lion’s share of Ministries and portfolios”, Abdullah said in pin-drop silence in the Assembly all through his speech.
Taking exception to the Mufti government issuing an order for maintaining dignity of the State Flag on March 12 but revoking the same on March 13, Abdullah asked: “Why did you withdraw the order? What was the compulsion? Was there a call from Nagpur, from Jhandewallan [RSS’ Delhi headquarters] or from Delhi?” He blasted the official spokesman’s averment that the March 12 order had been issued by the officials without the competent authority’s [Chief Minister’s] approval. “I have been a Chief Minister. I know that none of the officials would ever dare to issue such an order without the CM’s approval”, he asserted.
Abdullah challenged Mufti to produce the concerned file in the Assembly. “It will become clear in one minute whether it had the competent authority’s approval or not. Otherwise also, we are going to bring out the truth through an application under RTI”, he added.
Abdullah read out from newspaper reports what Mufti, his daughter Mehbooba and other PDP leaders had said about BJP during the recent Assembly elections. He elaborated how all the PDP leaders, particularly Mufti and Mehbooba, had labelled Modi and his BJP as the rank communalists and ruled out any alliance with them for gaining power in J&K.
“How did BJP become secular and a Kashmir-friendly party overnight? How did you forget your agenda and the peoples’ interest overnight? Have the BJP and the RSS become less communal now? How did you abruptly forget your tantrums on the Gujarat bloodshed [of 2002] and the martyrdom of Babri Masjid? Hasn’t a senior BJP leader just the other day said that the mosques were no religious places and these could be demolished anytime? Aren’t they using the words of Ramzade and Haramzade? Is this the deal of dignity you have given the Kashmiris?”, Abdullah asked Mufti and his Ministers.
“I admit we lost the elections for we failed to realise the peoples’ aspirations. Still we didn’t face the total rout you had predicted for us. We got more than that. But why did you get stuck on 28? Where are the 41 seats you were boasting of during the elections? We were at the receiving end and you had all the advantages---2010 turmoil, Afzal Guru’s execution, 2014 flood”, Abdullah added. “Now that your government is there from Delhi to here, where’s the mention of the Rs 44,000 crore flood relief in the Union Budget?”
Abdullah argued that rather than getting any concession over withdrawal of AFSPA from the Centre, Mufti had given the Union government right of interference in the State’s sovereign jurisdiction. “I admit, my Congress colleagues didn’t lend me support and I failed to revoke AFSPA. Now that you have formed the government with BJP, you must be enjoying their support. If withdrawal of AFSPA is purely a State matter, why don’t you do it in your Cabinet and send its file to Governor. We will accept that you have done what nobody else could ever”, Abdullah addressed Mufti.
The former Chief Minister reminded Mufti Prime Minister’s recent statement in the Parliament wherein Modi made it categorically clear that his government was strictly committed to implementation of the two Parliamentary resolutions on J&K. Abdullah elaborated that the two resolutions contained India’s unequivocal affirmation to retrieving the entire J&K terrories from Pakistan’s illegal occupation. “Is that the concession you have got from BJP? Would Pakistan ever enter into a dialogue where it would be asked by India to return the occupied territories?”, Abdullah said while ridiculing PDP’s talk of addressing the State’s external dimension.
“Had you prevailed on BJP and got these resolutions amended in the Parliament, we would have recognised it as your biggest achievement. Such talks have yielded nothing for 60 years and would not yield anything in the hundreds of years to come”, Abdullah asserted. He said that over 350 families of the Kashmiri youths, who had gone to Pakistan to become militants but abandoned militancy, had returned to home during his regime under the policy his government introduced for return and rehabilitation of the reformed militants.
“But not a single family has returned since the day this NDA government assumed office”, Abdullah said, claiming that Modi’s government had virtually frozen the rehabilitation scheme. He also lashed out on PDP for saying for 6 years that over 10,000 youth had been detained under Public Safety Act by the Omar government . “Now the other day when Mehboobaji was asked at India Today Conclave about the political prisoners, she put their total number at 16. I ask you where did those thousands of detenus go. You haven’t released a single of them”.
Over a dozen members spoke in favour of or against the Governor’s address in Thursday’s debate which would conclude with Chief Minister Mufti’s detailed reply on Friday evening.
END
◆‘Agenda for Alliance is PDP’s total sell-out for power’
◆‘Let Cabinet revoke AFSPA, send file to Governor. Why bring Delhi in everything?’
◆‘Not a single Kashmiri has returned from Pak during Modi regime’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
_______
Jammu, March 19: Former Chief Minister and the opposition National Conference leader in the Legislative Assembly in the Indian-administered State of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, on Thursday alleged that the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which has formed the government in an alliance with Bharatya Janata Party, and its Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed were taking diktats from Nagpur---headquarters of the Hindu fundamentalist outfit Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh [RSS], and undermining the State’ special constitutional status in exchange for power.
Speaking for about 50 minutes on Governor’s address and the ruling coalition’s Minimum Common Programme, titled “Agenda of Alliance”, in the Assembly, Abdullah maintained that Mufti and his PDP had compromised the Stat’s dignity and special status, besides the peoples’ interest, “only for gaining the power”. He asserted that Mufti had done total reversal of what he and other leaders of his party had been telling and promising the Kashmiris since 1999.
Abdullah pointed out that the coalition’s “Agenda of Alliance” carried nothing of the PDP’s plank of ‘Self Rule’ which Mufti’s party had been projecting as the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir crisis. “Where’s your Self Rule, joint control mechanism, double currency, release of political detainees et al ?”, Abdullah asked the Treasury Benches.
“We were worried that you would wipe us out and deny us even 5 seats in the next elections by holding the talks with the BJP for some time and finally withdrawing with the assertion that the BJP had no regard for the State’s special position and political aspiration. But we in the NC and Congress were relieved when you compromised everything for the Chief Minister’s chair for six years and the lion’s share of Ministries and portfolios”, Abdullah said in pin-drop silence in the Assembly all through his speech.
Taking exception to the Mufti government issuing an order for maintaining dignity of the State Flag on March 12 but revoking the same on March 13, Abdullah asked: “Why did you withdraw the order? What was the compulsion? Was there a call from Nagpur, from Jhandewallan [RSS’ Delhi headquarters] or from Delhi?” He blasted the official spokesman’s averment that the March 12 order had been issued by the officials without the competent authority’s [Chief Minister’s] approval. “I have been a Chief Minister. I know that none of the officials would ever dare to issue such an order without the CM’s approval”, he asserted.
Abdullah challenged Mufti to produce the concerned file in the Assembly. “It will become clear in one minute whether it had the competent authority’s approval or not. Otherwise also, we are going to bring out the truth through an application under RTI”, he added.
Abdullah read out from newspaper reports what Mufti, his daughter Mehbooba and other PDP leaders had said about BJP during the recent Assembly elections. He elaborated how all the PDP leaders, particularly Mufti and Mehbooba, had labelled Modi and his BJP as the rank communalists and ruled out any alliance with them for gaining power in J&K.
“How did BJP become secular and a Kashmir-friendly party overnight? How did you forget your agenda and the peoples’ interest overnight? Have the BJP and the RSS become less communal now? How did you abruptly forget your tantrums on the Gujarat bloodshed [of 2002] and the martyrdom of Babri Masjid? Hasn’t a senior BJP leader just the other day said that the mosques were no religious places and these could be demolished anytime? Aren’t they using the words of Ramzade and Haramzade? Is this the deal of dignity you have given the Kashmiris?”, Abdullah asked Mufti and his Ministers.
“I admit we lost the elections for we failed to realise the peoples’ aspirations. Still we didn’t face the total rout you had predicted for us. We got more than that. But why did you get stuck on 28? Where are the 41 seats you were boasting of during the elections? We were at the receiving end and you had all the advantages---2010 turmoil, Afzal Guru’s execution, 2014 flood”, Abdullah added. “Now that your government is there from Delhi to here, where’s the mention of the Rs 44,000 crore flood relief in the Union Budget?”
Abdullah argued that rather than getting any concession over withdrawal of AFSPA from the Centre, Mufti had given the Union government right of interference in the State’s sovereign jurisdiction. “I admit, my Congress colleagues didn’t lend me support and I failed to revoke AFSPA. Now that you have formed the government with BJP, you must be enjoying their support. If withdrawal of AFSPA is purely a State matter, why don’t you do it in your Cabinet and send its file to Governor. We will accept that you have done what nobody else could ever”, Abdullah addressed Mufti.
The former Chief Minister reminded Mufti Prime Minister’s recent statement in the Parliament wherein Modi made it categorically clear that his government was strictly committed to implementation of the two Parliamentary resolutions on J&K. Abdullah elaborated that the two resolutions contained India’s unequivocal affirmation to retrieving the entire J&K terrories from Pakistan’s illegal occupation. “Is that the concession you have got from BJP? Would Pakistan ever enter into a dialogue where it would be asked by India to return the occupied territories?”, Abdullah said while ridiculing PDP’s talk of addressing the State’s external dimension.
“Had you prevailed on BJP and got these resolutions amended in the Parliament, we would have recognised it as your biggest achievement. Such talks have yielded nothing for 60 years and would not yield anything in the hundreds of years to come”, Abdullah asserted. He said that over 350 families of the Kashmiri youths, who had gone to Pakistan to become militants but abandoned militancy, had returned to home during his regime under the policy his government introduced for return and rehabilitation of the reformed militants.
“But not a single family has returned since the day this NDA government assumed office”, Abdullah said, claiming that Modi’s government had virtually frozen the rehabilitation scheme. He also lashed out on PDP for saying for 6 years that over 10,000 youth had been detained under Public Safety Act by the Omar government . “Now the other day when Mehboobaji was asked at India Today Conclave about the political prisoners, she put their total number at 16. I ask you where did those thousands of detenus go. You haven’t released a single of them”.
Over a dozen members spoke in favour of or against the Governor’s address in Thursday’s debate which would conclude with Chief Minister Mufti’s detailed reply on Friday evening.
END
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