STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Two days after former Union home minister P Chidambaram termed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act as an “Obnoxious Law”, senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz on Sunday said the law needs to be revoked from Jammu and Kashmir after consultation with the Army Generals.
“We don’t need it (AFSPA) anymore and it should go after taking onboard the Generals of the Army,” Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Soz told reporters.
He said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who is also the chairman of the unified command made an announcement that he would repeal the AFSPA without consultation with the Army Generals and other security establishments.
“How can he say that we did not support him for the revocation of AFSPA when he made an announcement without even consulting the Army Generals or his senior police officers,” Soz said.
The situation in Kashmir has changed as peace has started to return in the valley and the security agencies and the central government must take a call on the revocation of AFSPA, he said.
“Peace is returning to Kashmir and during yesterday’s rally in Sonwar where I was on the top of an open vehicle, I did not bother about someone shooting at me. There is peace in Kashmir and I am hopeful that the Central government will take a decision to repeal the law,” Soz said.
To a query regarding the allegations leveled by Union Minister Jitendra Singh that the state government did not act despite the warnings given by the Center before the floods hit Srinagar city, he said that it was a “false propaganda”.
“Dr Jitendra Singh is not an expert, the party is spreading a false propaganda. I was Union minister for water resources and I can tell you that the magnitude of the floods was so much that no government would have been able to do anything,” Soz said.
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what he termed as one man running the government, Soz said, “It is the one man of the RSS who is running the entire government. It is one man’s government. Even the BJP is also under threat of disintegration as it has now come under direct control of RSS.”
Soz said, in response to the issue of electing a Hindu Chief Minister after the upcoming assembly elections in the state, “Congress is a secular party and we will let the elected representative decide about who would be the Chief Minister of the state”.
Soz said that BJP was playing politics with the demands of the migrants from Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
“If he (Modi) wants to do something extra for the migrants we welcome it, but by returning the package to the state, they are playing politics with the migrants,” Soz said.
Soz said no government formation in the state would be possible without the support of Congress.
“There (BJP’s) mission 44+ is day dreaming and I assure you that no government in the state would be possible without Congress,” Soz said.