STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday hit back at the BJP, alleging that it was labelling the opposition parties as agents of Pakistan to hide its own mistakes.
The former chief minister also urged the Election Commission to provide a level playing field, alleging that the BJP was providing resources and other support to independent candidates in the Kashmir Valley.
Responding to the allegations of BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, that NC, PDP and Congress were implementing Pakistan’s agenda, Abdullah said the BJP keeps on raising the bogey of Pakistan to divert attention from its shortcomings. “They raise Pakistan now and then. They commit mistakes themselves but accuse us of being Pakistanis. They allege that Rahul Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah’s alliance has been formed because of directions from Pakistan.
“What do we have to do with Pakistan? We are Indians. How can they say such things? I think they themselves are Pakistanis but are portraying us as a danger,” he told reporters here. Referring to the recent spike in terror incidents in the Jammu region, the NC president asked whether the BJP will still blame Article 370 for it.
“They used to say that Article 370 was responsible for terror here. Today, they are in power, has terror ended? There was an encounter in Reasi. So, is Article 370 responsible even today?”
The former Union minister alleged that the BP government bifurcated and downgraded J-K into two union territories because of its Muslim majority character.
“I will say this on their face that they downgraded us into a UT because we were a Muslim-majority state. They divided this state,” he said.
Asserting that J-K’s statehood will be restored, Abdullah said the BJP was on “crutches”, apparently referring to the support of JD(U) and TDP to the BJP-led government. “A time will come when we will get our statehood back. The whole of India stands with us. Today, the BJP is on the crutches. They say one nation, one election, I want to ask them if this is a federal structure or not.
