SRINAGAR: National Conference President Dr. Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said there were clear indications that a long-existing lobby in New Delhi was reinventing its mission to erode what remains of the State’s internal autonomy.
Addressing a day-long lawyers’ conclave organised by the party’s legal cell at NC Headquarters in Srinagar on Saturday, Dr. Farooq Abdullah said Mehbooba Mufti and her colleagues should draw lessons from history and fear the reprisals of political connivance with forces inimical to the interests of the State.
“I have personally witnessed how a long-existing lobby in New Delhi has used pliant leaders and regimes in the State to erode Article 370 and rob the State of its constitutionally guaranteed Internal Autonomy – one step at a time. This is a chronicle of betrayals and breach of faith that started with the deposition and incarceration of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and continues to this day. At every juncture in our history, this lobby in New Delhi has used pliant leaders and co-opting regimes in the State to inflict irrevocable damage on Article 370. Today we see the efforts of this lobby manifest in the form of the extension of NFSA and NEET to the State while the PDP-BJP Government is peddling an ‘Industrial Policy’ which is glaringly conspicuous in its ambiguity on the question of non-State-subject investors and promoters. What others did between 1953 and 1975, PDP is following suit and re-enacting the same master-servant opportunistic relationship that has wreaked havoc with our State”, Farooq said while addressing prominent lawyers from across the Valley.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah recollected various intrigues unleashed on the State at various junctures in history through various local pliant politicians and said those who had connived against the State and its people had witnessed rejection, resentment and humiliation instead of a political legacy long after they had left this world.
The one-day lawyers’ conclave was also attended by NC General Secretary Haji Ali Mohammad Sagar, NC Additional General Secretary Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, Party Vice President Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan, NC Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, NC Spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu and NC Provincial Secretary Advocate Showkat Ahmed Mir. The welcome address was delivered by Senior Advocate, Advocate Mohammad Ishaq Qadri. Senior lawyers and members of the NC Legal Cell including Advocates Shahid Ali Shah, Abas Hamid, Abdul Aziz Teli, Mohammad Shafi Shaheen, Shabir Ahmed Kulay, Hilal Akbar Lone and Abdul Rashid Lone also participated in the conclave and addressed the gathering.