Ravinder Jalali
Former Chief Minister and President National Conference Dr. Farooq Abdullah recently said that the new generation of militants in Valley are not afraid of gun but are freedom fighters who are fighting for their rights. His remarks are nothing less than provoking and inciting people in Valley for violence and amounts to waging a war against the nation. He said that the boys are on righteous path and Allah is with them. He invokes religion also like other radicals do. He further said that these boys are not fighting for any post or position but are fighting for freedom which is their birth right. His assertion that Kashmir is our land and we are its right full owners is ridiculous, as if the Abdullah’s have purchased it. He must remember that it did not belong to Maharaja as well who were once true owners as they had purchased it under treaty of Amritsar for some Rs. 75 lakh.
Dr. Abdullah is raking up sometimes issues of Article 370 and ghost autonomy. He is reminded of, that much of milking has been done on such type of redundant issues and can not be milked for ever. It has often seen that when ever NC is out of power, the father son duo rakes up only dead issues which have become irrelevant with the passage of time. Sometimes he justifies stone pelting and supports stone pelters. He even went to support Huriyat and separatists. Had the Abdullah been serious on such issues then why he is not involving his own children in stone pelting or would have picked up the gun? Since Abdullah’s are out of power that is why these issues which have become dead with the passage of time, becomes relevant for them. He speaks different language at different places. In New Delhi it will be pro-India and anti-Pakistan. In Jammu it will be Pro-India anti-PDP and in Valley it will be Anti-India, Pro-Pakistan, Pro-separatist. If any body will go by his past record it will be clear crystal that in Valley his statements are communal and plays Muslim card and outside Valley he plays pseudo secular card and in Delhi he plays national card. He is changing colours like chameleon simply just for the sake of power.
It is ridiculous to see Abdullah, blaming India and Pakistan for the sufferings of Kashmiris. He termed it as a blatant lie and questioned Abdullah for not stating the facts that it is the Kashmiri Pandits who have suffered the most in Kashmir at the hands terrorists from within and outside, aided and abated by the local population and the tragedy is that it has happened in secular and democratic India. Dr. Farooq Abdullah is the same person who advocated bombardment of terrorist camps in PoK and said that he is born Indian, living as Indian and die as Indian. Why is he afraid of naming Pakistan alone for the sufferings of Kashmiris? When ever he has to name Pakistan, he combines it with India. Even if he had an iota of conscious left in him he could have spoken about the sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits but he always advocates for those who are against Indian establishment. They can fool one person at all times or all people for some time but not all the people for all the times. Now the people are matured enough to understand the game of Abdullahs` and will not fall prey to such cheap gimmicks which are only to remain in the newspapers.
Both former Chief Minister Abdullah’s are making irresponsible and vague statements. Recently Omar Abdullah was speaking in a conference at the Harvard University in Boston on a discussion titled ‘Kashmir-Breaking the Impasse’. It was seen that Omar Abdullah was lying at an international forum by terming the Kashmir issue as a political one and said that no development, whatsoever, can solve it. But the fact of the matter is that the Kashmir problem is not a political one but a communal problem based on the two nation theory of partition of 1947 which still hangs on the rotten mindset of these types of politicians.
It is the habit of Abdullahs to give different statements at different levels to suit his convenience. Omar is blaming Mehbooba for the unrest in valley in 2016 but forgets the unrest of 2010 when more than 100 were killed and then justifies the action of security forces. Omar Abdullah did not speak a word about the Huriyat and separatists there by inter-alia supporting them and their mission which is nothing less than ceding Kashmir from India. The Huriyat and the separatists are nothing but extending arms of Pakistan and ISI and anybody supporting the separatists and Huriyat are only helping Pakistan and ISI.
The assessment of Abdullah is totally wrong when he says that the Kashmir issue is inherently a political issue. If it was a political issue then what the Abdullahs`, now in the third generation, have been doing so far. If they would have been sincere, then the solution would have come but since they along with separatists are not interesting in solving it, they keep the pot boiling because once the issue is resolved they will come on the roadside and no body would care for them. When ever they are in power they forget all these issues and once out of power, all these dead issues, they bring on forefront.
It is reiterated that the Kashmir Issue is a settled issue and the only remaining task is to abrogate Article 370 which is a emotional barrier deliberately being created by vested politicians and pseudo nationals and is being exploited by Kashmir centric leaders and it is this Article 370 which is responsible for the Kashmir issue which has given a sense of separatisms and alienation to the people of Kashmir.
Some two years back, former CM Omar was seen leading a protest rally in Srinagar for the first time in his life against what he said as failure of ‘PDP and BJP Govt’. Any way it had given him an opportunity of learning as how to arrange and organise protest rallies jointly with separatists and will boost his anti India campaign. It seems that NC is coming closer to separatists and in near future probably, he may also join the conglomerate of Huriyat, if need arises. Sometimes he wants Govt. to resume talks with separatists. On one side they claim themselves as representatives of Kashmir and at the same time wants Govt. to resume talks with them. It shows that how inconsistent they are and show their desperation. I am amused to hear that what they could not deliver in 60 years is now expecting PDP and BJP alliance to achieve in two years. Since the NC has no issues to corner the Govt., it is catching the straw in air. It is just like that after they ruined the garden completely for 60 years, with only weeds , thorns, wild grass and no flowers left behind, and now one fine morning they want to have a beautiful garden. It is not possible. It will take some time. We have to first remove the garbage, weed out the unwanted grass, thorns etc. before we could start. NC-Congress has ruined the beautiful garden, our state, since independence. The people of J and K will never allow the NC to play with the interests of people of J and K State which includes all the three regions. Enough is enough.
NC seems to be so desperate that they can go to any extreme extent. It is during their rule in 1989 when the militancy was blooming and the NC was nurturing and watering it. But the question is that NC has always misled the innocent people of Valley for their personal gains, and they know that it will not work again.
(The writer isSocial Activist and Convenor, panun Kashmir.)
