News Analysis India

Tag: National conference

  • Was Yasin Malik born with gun or did situation compel him, asks Sajad Lone

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone on Saturday said separatist leader Yasin Malik, convicted in a terror funding case, deserves a fair trial and demanded a probe into the alleged rigging in the 1987 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

    He said the 1987 rigging resulted in the eruption of militancy in the Kashmir Valley and asked National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah why Malik was ‘tortured’.

    “We do not agree to his (Malik’s) ideology, but he is a citizen of J-K and has a right to a fair trial. His point of view be at least heard,” Lone told reporters.

    He said Malik was one of those who had raised their voice against the alleged rigging in the 1987 assembly elections.

    “Was Yasin Malik born with a gun in hand or did the situation compel him to do so? Most of those youth are either dead or are in jail. Why is the Central government not lifting the veil from 1987? Why are they covering it up?” Lone asked.

    He said the compulsions of the Congress party to not inquire the alleged rigging can be understood because the party was a part of it, but what is stopping the BJP, which was not in power then, from investigating the matter.

    “You (BJP) say you want to change everything and that everything which has happened was wrong,” Lone said, adding when the saffron party was getting even decades-old minor incidents investigated by the NIA, then why not the 1987 rigging.

    He said the 1987 rigging was the trigger point for the eruption of militancy in Kashmir.

    “The reality is that if 1987 is taken out of history, then perhaps, nothing would have happened. Whatever is happening, followed that only,” he said.

    Malik, 56, head of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), began a hunger strike in Tihar Jail after the government did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case in which he is an accused, officials said on Saturday.

    He was arrested in early 2019 in connection with a 2017 terror-funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

    Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special NIA court in Delhi in May.

    Asked about the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) — which his party quit after being a part of it for some time — Lone said the amalgam was “dead”.

    “It is not PAGD, but NC-PDP alliance. It is an alliance of two parties only to stop any other party from coming to power. The PAGD was there, but now it is not. It is dead,” he said.

    READ HERE | Former J&K CM’s daughter Rubaiya Sayeed identifies Yasin Malik, three others as her abductors

    Asked about NC vice president Omar Abdullah’s tweet about opposition unity in the country, Lone said “It seems it was done to please the BJP and (keep) distance from the Congress.”

    Omar Abdullah had tweeted, “Opposition unity is a bit of a chimera. Ultimately political parties will do what’s in their own interest & that’s as it should be. J&K saw this when we were left high & dry by ‘friends’ in 2019. It’s time for @JKNC_ to do suits the party rather than waste time chasing ghosts.”

    Taking a dig at PDP president Mehbooba Mufti over her remarks that her sister Rubaiya Sayeed performed her legal duties by identifying Malik as her abductor, Lone said Mufti should stop talking about reconciliation.

    “When 1990 came, two new words came ‘militant’ and ‘mukhbir’ (informer). So, they have played the role of an informer. It is their right to be an informer and no one will stop them, but, they should say it. They talk about reconciliation, talks with militants, (Hizbul Mujahideen chief) (Syed) Salahudin, and Pakistan. When you are an informer, then do not talk about these things because an informer cannot talk about reconciliation,” he said.

    SRINAGAR: People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone on Saturday said separatist leader Yasin Malik, convicted in a terror funding case, deserves a fair trial and demanded a probe into the alleged rigging in the 1987 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

    He said the 1987 rigging resulted in the eruption of militancy in the Kashmir Valley and asked National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah why Malik was ‘tortured’.

    “We do not agree to his (Malik’s) ideology, but he is a citizen of J-K and has a right to a fair trial. His point of view be at least heard,” Lone told reporters.

    He said Malik was one of those who had raised their voice against the alleged rigging in the 1987 assembly elections.

    “Was Yasin Malik born with a gun in hand or did the situation compel him to do so? Most of those youth are either dead or are in jail. Why is the Central government not lifting the veil from 1987? Why are they covering it up?” Lone asked.

    He said the compulsions of the Congress party to not inquire the alleged rigging can be understood because the party was a part of it, but what is stopping the BJP, which was not in power then, from investigating the matter.

    “You (BJP) say you want to change everything and that everything which has happened was wrong,” Lone said, adding when the saffron party was getting even decades-old minor incidents investigated by the NIA, then why not the 1987 rigging.

    He said the 1987 rigging was the trigger point for the eruption of militancy in Kashmir.

    “The reality is that if 1987 is taken out of history, then perhaps, nothing would have happened. Whatever is happening, followed that only,” he said.

    Malik, 56, head of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), began a hunger strike in Tihar Jail after the government did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case in which he is an accused, officials said on Saturday.

    He was arrested in early 2019 in connection with a 2017 terror-funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

    Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special NIA court in Delhi in May.

    Asked about the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) — which his party quit after being a part of it for some time — Lone said the amalgam was “dead”.

    “It is not PAGD, but NC-PDP alliance. It is an alliance of two parties only to stop any other party from coming to power. The PAGD was there, but now it is not. It is dead,” he said.

    READ HERE | Former J&K CM’s daughter Rubaiya Sayeed identifies Yasin Malik, three others as her abductors

    Asked about NC vice president Omar Abdullah’s tweet about opposition unity in the country, Lone said “It seems it was done to please the BJP and (keep) distance from the Congress.”

    Omar Abdullah had tweeted, “Opposition unity is a bit of a chimera. Ultimately political parties will do what’s in their own interest & that’s as it should be. J&K saw this when we were left high & dry by ‘friends’ in 2019. It’s time for @JKNC_ to do suits the party rather than waste time chasing ghosts.”

    Taking a dig at PDP president Mehbooba Mufti over her remarks that her sister Rubaiya Sayeed performed her legal duties by identifying Malik as her abductor, Lone said Mufti should stop talking about reconciliation.

    “When 1990 came, two new words came ‘militant’ and ‘mukhbir’ (informer). So, they have played the role of an informer. It is their right to be an informer and no one will stop them, but, they should say it. They talk about reconciliation, talks with militants, (Hizbul Mujahideen chief) (Syed) Salahudin, and Pakistan. When you are an informer, then do not talk about these things because an informer cannot talk about reconciliation,” he said.

  • NC demands lodging of FIR against BJP’s Nupur Sharma over Prophet Muhammad comments 

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The National Conference on Saturday demanded stern action against BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her alleged remarks on Prophet Muhammad during a television show.

    “The party expresses dismay over the ‘blasphemous, offensive, and frighteningly hurtful’ remarks of the BJP spokesperson against Prophet Muhammad during a debate on a national TV news channel,” Salman Ali Sagar, provincial president, Youth National Conference (YNC) Kashmir, said in a statement.

    He termed Sharma’s views unfounded, unsubstantiated and uncalled for in entirety.

    “The BJP and the Union government must offer an unqualified apology for such sacrilegious comments in which the most sacred name for Muslims was used in a bid to stoke communal passions,” he said.

    The National Conference (NC) leader also demanded lodging of an FIR against the BJP leader.

    He said the smart alecks of the saffron brigade cannot hide behind Article 19 of the constitution which guarantees freedom of speech to the citizens.

    He added that action against Sharma could well send a strong message to all the nefarious elements of the country who are out to create a chasm between Hindus and Muslims for their own “political chicanery”.

  • J&K: NC, People’s Conference indulge in blame game over delimitation panel report

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The National Conference on Thursday said it was studying the impact of the Delimitation Commission report on individual assembly segments in Jammu and Kashmir but claimed the BJP and its proxies will be punished by the voters whenever elections are held in the union territory.

    However, the People’s Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone, which is seen as an ally of the BJP, accused the National Conference of providing sanctity to the delimitation exercise after its MPs participated in the deliberations of the commission.

    Redrawing the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir, a three-member Delimitation Commission on Thursday earmarked 47 assembly seats for Kashmir division and 43 for Jammu in its final order submitted just a day before its two-year tenure was to end.

    A gazette notification was issued after the panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, signed the final order giving Jammu six additional seats and one more to Kashmir.

    “We have seen the final recommendations of the Delimitation Commission. We are studying the implications of these recommendations for individual assembly constituencies. No amount of gerrymandering will change the ground reality which is that whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP & its proxies for what they have done to J&K over the last 4 years,” the National Conference tweeted.

    However, the People’s Conference said the delimitation report is a repeat of the past and accused the NC of providing sanctity to the delimitation exercise.

    “Same traditional entities are calling the shots behind the scenes. Kashmir has been discriminated against as in the past. No change. Only degree of disempowerment is greater,” the party said in a statement posted on Twitter.

    Over the last six decades, Kashmir’s share of assembly seats in the J-K assembly increased from 43 to 47, while Jammu’s share rose from 30 to 43. Who is responsible for systematic disempowerment of Kashmiris from 1947, it asked.

    “Those who aided and abetted in the journey from Jammu’s 30 to 37 are the ones who aided and abetted from 37 to 43. Wish Kashmiri parties had stayed away and not diluted the stigma associated with a people-less process. Hope Kashmiris will remember the parties who associated themselves with delimitation process which was in essential a tool for disempowerment will always be in wonderment. How could a party which associated itself with the delimitation process be so audacious. They actually had the nerve of submitting one memorandum in Kashmir and a separate memorandum in Jammu. Ironically the memorandums were contradictory,” the People’s Conference said “The Jammu one seemed to have been copy-pasted from the Hindutva brigade,” it added.

    The party said it will go for an RTI and seek the video recordings of the meetings.

    “How those who started beating their chests outside the meeting halls were bending their back backwards to appease and please the members of the delimitation commission. Financial scams indulged in – during the last few decades cannot be squared off by covertly facilitating disempowerment of the Kashmiris. How stupid we were. We couldn’t see through the game plan. The raids. The EDs. It was all a game. A trade-off. They again bartered away the Kashmiris. The barterers are the same. When will this change,” it said.

    The party said it does not claim that the outcome of the exercise would have been any different if there was no participation of the National Conference. “But the process would not enjoy the sanctity that they enjoy now.”

  • ‘The Kashmir Files’ far from truth: Omar Abdullah breaks silence on Vivek Agnihotri film

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The National Conference on Friday broke its silence on ‘The Kashmir Files’ saying while the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits was a “stain on Kashmiriyat”, the movie was far from the truth as the film makers have ignored the sacrifices of the Muslims and Sikhs who had also suffered from militancy.

    Vice President of the party and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah said that if ‘The Kashmir Files’ was a commercial movie, no one has an issue, but if the film makers claim that it is based on reality, then the facts are the other way round.

    “When the unfortunate incident of Kashmiri Pandit migration took place, Farooq Abdullah was not the chief minister. Jagmohan was the governor. It was V P Singh’s government at the Centre which was supported by the BJP from outside,” Abdullah told reporters in Damal Hanji Pora of Kulgam district of South Kashmir.

    Abdullah wondered why this fact was kept away from the movie.

    “Don’t manipulate the truth. It’s not the right thing.”

    “If Kashmiri Pandits have fallen victims to terrorism, we have utmost regret about that, but let us not forget the sacrifices of Muslims and Sikhs who were also targeted by the same gun,” he said.

    Abdullah said that some of those from the majority community were yet to return.

    “Today, there is a need to create an atmosphere where we could bring back all those who had left their homes and not create a communal divide,” he said.

    The former chief minister said an atmosphere would be created for the return of Kashmiri Pandits.

    “But I do not think that those people who have made this movie, want them (Kashmiri Pandits) to return. Through this picture, they want Pandits to remain outside always,” he said.

    Abdullah later took to Twitter and said, “The pain and suffering of 1990 and after can not be undone. The way Kashmiri Pandits had their sense of security snatched from them and had to leave the valley is a stain on our culture of Kashmiriyat. We have to find ways to heal divides and not add to them.”

    While replying to one of the tweets by a Kashmiri Pandit about the reasons for a long silence, Abdullah reminded him saying “I’ve been saying it for years now, both as CM and out of office. Perhaps you weren’t paying attention to what I was saying then. I’ve been a long time advocate of a Truth and Reconciliation commission to look in all that happened from 1990 onwards.”

    During his tenure as the chief minister, Abdullah had advocated setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to go into the events unfolding since the onset of militancy.

    Earlier, in his address, Abdullah said attempts were being made to defame a community across the world.

    “A common Kashmiri is not happy with what happened 32 years ago, that people were made to leave the Valley. Today, an impression is being created that all Kashmiris are communal, that all Kashmiris do not bear the people from other religions. What will be achieved by this? Will it make the road easier for their return? “I am afraid that the hatred which is being created against Kashmiri Muslims today, God forbid, our children studying outside the state, should not bear its brunt,” he said, adding, it is the duty of the governments across the country to ensure the security of Kashmiris, including the students staying in other states and union territories.

    On the prevalent political situation, Abdullah said there was no truth in what was being projected by the Centre in Jammu and Kashmir and across the country.

    “We were of the opinion that the ground situation will witness a marked improvement with time. But the situation is worsening with each passing day. We haven’t come across any effort to bridge the gaps of mistrust. On the contrary, we unfortunately see how an entire community is being denigrated,” he said.

    Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks “Dil aur Dilli ki Doori” made during the all-party meeting last year, the NC leader said instead of reducing the ‘doori’ (gap), “There is an attempt to defame the entire nation of Kashmir across the country.”

  • NC chief Farooq Abdullah calls for larger role for women in policy planning, decision-making

    By PTI

    JAMMU: Asserting that the National Conference has all along been striving for gender equality, party president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday laid emphasis on political empowerment of women and their larger role in policy planning and decision-making.

    “Involvement of women in decision-making and policy planning is necessary for achieving comprehensive, unbiased and sustainable development, which will eventually lead to harmonious growth of the society,” Abdullah, a former chief minister, said.

    Interacting with the newly constituted provincial women wing of the party at a function here, Abdullah referred to measures taken by his party over the years for women empowerment and emancipation and said this is necessary for promoting leadership roles among them.

    Provincial president of the women wing Satwant Kour Dogra introduced the new office-bearers.

    Congratulating them, Abdullah said due to the prevailing situation the women of Jammu and Kashmir have been the worst sufferers.

    “Discrimination and depravity at the societal and domestic-level with our mothers and sisters is not unknown in this part of the world.

    Rising unemployment and inflation in J&K is also having a cascading effect on our promising women,” he said.

    “Having women in politics, it goes without saying, will attune party policies towards the needs of women and prepare them for the leadership roles to face the challenges of the present and future,” he said.

    “The need of the hour is to provide a platform to aspiring women and help in creating impactful voices to take on the looming challenges,” he said and hoped that the functionaries would reach out to the people and help solve their problems.

  • J-K: NC youth activist among many prominent leaders join BJP

    By PTI

    JAMMU: A youth activist of the National Conference (NC) and leaders from other parties joined the BJP here on Tuesday, the party said.

    NC leader and social activist Shaida Maqsood, along with her supporters, joined the BJP and the party’s headquarters here.

    Similarly, other prominent leaders from Manjhakot, Rajouri, joined the saffron party.

    J-K BJP president Ravinder Raina, general secretary Vibodh Gupta and BJP headquarters in-charge Priya Sethi welcomed them into the party fold.

    Speaking on the occasion, Raina said people are joining the BJP due to its development-centric policies.

    Sethi said the BJP is the best platform to serve the nation and society.

  • BJP creating new political parties in J&K to ensure majority in legislative assembly: Omar Abdullah

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday claimed that the BJP was creating new political parties in the Valley to ensure a majority in the legislative assembly for passing a resolution in favour of the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories.

    He said the saffron party knew it that it will fall short of the majority in the House on its own whenever elections are held.

    “They want to use a majority in the assembly to bring a resolution that will undo the earlier resolution. Then they will go to the Supreme Court and tell it that the case filed (by NC Lok Sabha members) against abrogation (of Article 370) is false as people are satisfied. The Supreme Court will have no option but to throw out the case,” Abdullah said.

    “The BJP knows it won’t get any seats from Kashmir….That’s why new parties are being created to shore up a majority. The PAGD was formed to ensure that the BJP does not get a majority,” he added.

    Abdullah was addressing a party convention in Bandipora district in north Kashmir.

    He said District Development Council elections were announced with the aim to break the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

    “They thought either the alliance will break over seat-sharing or it will lose elections. Neither of the two happened. In fact, the alliance won the maximum number of seats. It proved that people from Kashmir and Jammu were not with the decision taken in August 2019.”

    “Then some alliance constituents were separated from it on one pretext of the other. Some way or the other, they want to prove that people are with the decision of August 5,” the NC leader said.

    He claimed that the efforts of the BJP are now focussed on showing to the world, through the legislative assembly, that the decisions of August 5, 2019, are acceptable to people of Jammu and Kashmir.

    “In 2000, J-K Assembly passed an important resolution. By virtue of that resolution, J-K Assembly had sought restoration of internal autonomy. That resolution is still part of the assembly record. Nothing has come to change that. Just like a resolution was passed in Parliament with regard to Jammu and Kashmir. Whenever there is talk about J-K, the members of Parliament say entire Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India and it is the job of the government to implement the resolution. On the same lines, the resolution of Assembly is binding on all governments,” Abdullah said.

    He said the BJP is actively pursuing the resolution route to erase the previous resolution passed by the assembly 21 years ago.

    “They know our case in the Supreme Court is strong. Had our case been weak, the hearings would have been held much earlier. That’s why they want to pass the resolution in the assembly,” he added.

  • Farooq Abdullah says Srinagar attack unfortunate, asks government to hold talks with Pakistan

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday condoled the death of two policemen in a terror attack in Srinagar and asked the government to hold talks with Pakistan to find a way to bring peace in the region.

    He said both India and Pakistan should “shed their egos” and come forward for dialogue.

    He also asked the Centre to “win the hearts” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to put an end to terrorism in the Valley.

    Two policemen were killed and 12 others injured as terrorists opened fire on a bus carrying Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday, the 20th anniversary of the Parliament Attack, according to officials.

    The bus carrying 25 police personnel was attacked in Zewan in Pantha Chowk area.

    “It’s an unfortunate incident. First of all, I pay tributes to the martyrs and tell the government that to end such things, they should talk about winning hearts. If the government of India doesn’t win hearts and remove the distance from Delhi, these things will continue,” Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of a book titled “Furrows in a Field: The Unexplored Life of H D Deve Gowda”.

    It is necessary to control such incidents, he added.

    Responding to reporters’ questions, the NC president said “both India and Pakistan should shed their egos and come forward for talks” to resolve issues.

    “I will keep saying that India should hold talks with Pakistan, no matter how much you criticise (me). Deve Gowda had also tried (when he was the prime minister). Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also tried, he was not a fool,” he said.

    Abdullah said an atmosphere can be created if efforts are made in this direction by the government.

    “If you think that we will hold a dialogue when the last bullet stops, it will be too late….both countries need to shed their egos and find a way out so that people are saved and progress takes place,” he said.

    He asked, “If you (Centre) can hold talks with China, which killed (our) 22 soldiers and is sitting on our land (territory), why can’t you hold talks with Pakistan? Why don’t you go to war with them (China)?” According to police, two to three terrorists were involved in Monday’s attack and they managed to escape from the spot taking advantage of darkness.

    The area has been cordoned off and a search operation launched to track down the assailants, the officials said.

  • Like farmers, people of J&K may have to make ‘sacrifices’ to get back their rights: Farooq Abdullah

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said the people of Jammu and Kashmir may have to make “sacrifices”, as farmers protesting the new farm laws did, to restore its statehood and special status.

    Addressing a convention of the NC’s youth wing on the occasion of the 116th birth anniversary of party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah at his mausoleum at Naseembagh here, Abdullah, however, said his party does not support violence.

    After almost a year of protests by farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 19 announced the decision to repeal the farm laws passed last year to ease rules around the sale, pricing and storage of crops.

    Parliament passed a bill to repeal the farm laws on the first day of the ongoing Winter Session on November 29.

    “(The farmers protested for) 11 months, more than 700 farmers died. The Centre had to revoke the three farm bills when farmers made sacrifices. We may also have to make sacrifices like that to get back our rights.

    “Remember this, we have promised to get back (Articles) 370, 35-A and statehood and we are ready to make any sacrifice,” Abdullah said.

    The NC, however, is not against brotherhood and does not support violence, he said.

    The Centre revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two union territories on August 5, 2019.

    On the recent Hyderpora encounter and how the families of two civilians killed in the operation forced the administration to return their bodies, Abdullah said it was made possible because people showed unity.

    He demanded that the body of another person, Amir Magray, killed in the encounter also be returned to his family.

    “Three innocent people were killed (in the Hyderpora encounter). When people raised their voices, they (the administration) returned the bodies so that their kin could bury them. This is what unity can do.”

    “But the body of one person has still not been returned to his family. How many innocent people would they have killed this way? We will hold them accountable. He (God) will also hold them accountable and no one will escape that,” the NC chief said.

    Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that tourism has increased in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah said “as if tourism is everything” when it comes to the union territory.

    “You had promised 50,000 jobs, where are they? Rather you are terminating our people. Were there no people for employing in the (Jammu & Kashmir) Bank that you got people from Punjab and Haryana? “Where will the boys and girls from J&K go? But if we raise our voices, they are crushed. The media is facing pressure, they (journalists) are summoned to police stations if they write anything against (the government). And they (government) say there is freedom,” he said.

    Abdullah asked NC workers to remain united and hold the party flag high.

    “Many enemies will come and try to pull you (away) from the party, be wary (of them). They are roaming around. Do not listen to them and remain with the party,” he said.

  • India-Pakistan dialogue holds key to peace in Jammu and Kashmir: Farooq Abdullah

    By PTI

    JAMMU: Nothing can be achieved through threats, instead India and Pakistan have to hold talks for peace in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said on Monday.

    His remarks come a day after Union Minister Jitendra Singh said retrieving Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) is next on the agenda.

    Singh at a programme in New Delhi had said the leadership which has the capacity and the will to abrogate Article 370, also has the capacity to retrieve PoJK from the illegal occupation of Pakistan.

    “I have been repeatedly saying that India and Pakistan have to talk (for peace in Jammu and Kashmir). Threats are being held that we will take this thing or that which cannot solve the issue,” Abdullah told reporters at the Digiana Ashram where he had gone to inquire about the health of Sikh leader Mahant Manjeet Singh.

    “When they can talk to China which entered our territory and set up villages, why cannot they talk to them (Pakistan) who are across the border,” he said.

    Insisting on dialogue between India and Pakistan, Abdullah said that “neither we have to give something nor can take anything. We have to work to set this line (Line of Control) right so that there is easy travel and trade on both sides”.

    Those people who are on the other side of the line are our own, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

    The National Conference (NC) leader, while welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to repeal three contentious farm laws, said, “I am hopeful that they (Centre) will hear the voice of hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and restore statehood along with the eroded autonomy if they really want to address ‘Dil ki Doori and Dilli Ki Doori’.”

    In August 2019, the Centre had abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

    On India-Pakistan, Abdullah said when people on both sides come and go, the hatred will be replaced by love which will pave the way for peace in the region.

    To a question about the recent incidents of targeted killings by militants in Kashmir, he said, “This (militancy) is not a new thing for Jammu and Kashmir but once the hearts are won, the issue will be addressed.”

    On demands for restoration of statehood at a time when the Centre’s has accepted to repeal the farm laws, he said, “I am hopeful that they (BJP government) will hear the voice of the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

    “The prime minister had himself said he wanted to remove ‘Dil ki Doori and Dilli Ki Doori’ (while chairing an meeting of all parties of J&K in June). If he really wants to address the gap, it is imperative for them (government) to restore statehood and also return the autonomy which was eroded,” Abdullah said.

    On upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “National Conference is ready for it even if it is declared today but claimed that BJP is not going to rule Jammu and Kashmir ever.”

    About BJP’s target of 50 plus seats to form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “They can do it only if they tamper with voting machines or use police and army to cast bogus votes.”

    “One thing I want to make clear today is that BJP will never rule J&K. They will not even retain the number of seats which it won in the last assembly elections. They have to give answers to the people for their oppressive measures, growing unemployment and shortage of oxygen in hospitals during peak of COVID-19,” the Srinagar MP said.

    Today unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in the country and inflation is touching the sky because of rising prices of petrol and diesel, he claimed and requested the government to bring fuel prices under control to provide relief to the people.

    Asked when he is expecting the report of the delimitation commission, which will be followed by elections according to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Abdullah said the final meeting is yet to be called.

    “How come they complete the report without having the final meeting with the five MPs from J&K (three NC and two BJP)? They have not called us yet,” he said.

    On the killing of four persons in the controversial encounter in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar on November 15, Abdullah said that “we want a judicial inquiry into the incident to unveil the truth”.

    “The administration has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident but the officer can come under pressure from the government. We do not have people who can stand up within the system and speak the truth,” he said.

    Earlier, interacting with Sikh leaders, Abdullah stressed on the need for unity and maintaining brotherhood and said “if we have to save J&K and this country, we need to stand united against the hatred and polarisation”.