STATE TIMES NEWS
Ganderbal: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday accused both his coalition partner Congress and opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party of not supporting him in his endeavour to get controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act revoked.
He also said PDP did not support him as the opposition party saw “politics” in it and thought the credit would go to the National Conference (NC).
“There are no two thoughts (that Congress could have supported but they did not). Though I cannot say that Congress was not with me because no one helped me in this the way (former Home Minister P) Chidambaram did.
“I wish there were one or two more ministers like Chidambaram in the Cabinet Committee on Security, then today we would have come a long way forward in the revocation of AFSPA,” Omar told reporters after addressing an election rally here.
The NC Working President said while Chidambaram failed to convince his Cabinet colleagues at the Centre, the Chief Minister could not convince his Cabinet colleagues from Congress in the State.
“When I talked about revocation of AFSPA, the PDP president said that you cannot do it as such and will have to take the advice of the (armed) forces. Whatever they (PDP) say today, let them, but they did not support us that time. “Had they extended their complete support to us, perhaps we could have talked on a unified platform and we could have achieved something. But they did not, they saw politics in it and thought that its credit would go to the NC and they would be at loss, so they opposed it,” he said.
The Chief Minister said he tried his best but could not achieve his goal.
“I say this that I have not been able to do it. It is not something which is hidden. I tried my best. If I had lacked in my efforts then people would have said so. But unfortunately, we couldn’t do it. But if not in this government, then in the next one, we will do it,” he said.
Earlier, addressing an election meeting in Ganderbal Omar Abdullah said he had realised that time had come for the people to have their “own representative”.
“For 40 years, my family my grandfather, my father and me have been asking for votes for themselves from this constituency and it is for the first time that I am seeking votes from here for anyone other than the family,” Omar said while addressing an election rally here. (PTI)