Nagrota: In the wake of the controversy over the hate speech by Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must apologise to the residents of Kashmir.
“Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and the Prime Minister who will hold a rally in Srinagar must apologise to the people of Kashmir as his cabinet colleague has used abusive language for people like us,” Omar told reporters on the sidelines of an election rally here, held after Devender Singh Rana filed his nomination papers for the Nagrota constituency.
Asking BJP as how the party now expects votes from the people of Kashmir when such derogatory words have been used for the people, he said “Modi should explain why no action was taken against the minister… and apologise.”
Reacting to a question on the Prime Minister’s upcoming election rally in Kashmir in which BJP has claimed that it expects the participation of more than one lakh people, Omar said, “BJP has no dearth of money and they can offer food and arrange vehicles so it would not be a big deal to gather one lakh people from the entire Kashmir valley.”
He said even separatist-turned-politician Sajad Lone can alone bring more than 20 to 30 thousand people to attend Modi’s rally. .
When asked to comment on the statement of AICC president Sonia Gandhi in which she had held the Omar Abdullah government responsible for not implementing the Food Security Act in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the decision not to implement the Act in the state was taken after taking the Congress leadership into confidence.
“It was actually a considered decision on our part not to implement the Act and the Congress leadership, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Saifuddin Soz were well aware of the decision. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in India where the implementation of the Act would have removed food cover of more than 30 lakh people,” he said.
Omar said he would be the last person to implement a “piece of legislation” in the state that denies food to the people of the state.
While rubbishing the allegations of the BJP leadership that the NC government has indulged in looting of the funds meant for the development of the state, Omar said, “They must prove it, they have under their control several agencies like, CBI, CID and ED, what stops them from showing the proof and proving the allegations.”
Replying to a query about BJP not raising the issue of the abrogation of the Article 370 from the constitution, Omar said, “they (BJP) has a habit of forgetting the issues that it raises during election. To seek votes in Kashmir they have forgotten this issue, but when there would be elections in some other state they would again raise this issue,”.
The Prime Minister will address two election rallies in Srinagar and Anantnag on December 6. (PTI)
