National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah raked up a controversy on Friday, describing the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) “a part of Pakistan”.
“The PoK is in Pakistan and will remain so. Jammu and Kashmir is in India and will remain so. How long have we been saying the PoK is part of India, did we get it? Even [the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari] Vajpayee wanted to have a dialogue with Pakistan and give that part to it.”
“War is not the solution, only lives are lost. Dialogue is the only option,” he told journalists in Jammu, on the sidelines of a function to pay tributes to Congress leader and former J&K Finance Minister Lt. Girdhari Lal Dogra on his death anniversary.
Defending Aamir Khan, whose remarks on rising intolerance in the country have raised a storm, Dr. Abdullah said the actor was a target of a “concerted propaganda.” “When did he say he wants to leave the country? I was myself sitting there. It is a wrong propaganda against him. He said ‘India is my country. I am born in this soil and I will die in this soil’.”
Taking exception to Dr. Abdullah’s comments, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said: “There are Parliament resolutions that call the PoK part of India. That part of Kashmir has been taken by Pakistan illegally. We still believe that we need to retrieve that part.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described Dr. Abdullah’s remarks as a “U-turn on its previous stand.”
“If, in the past, Dr. Abdullah advocated war with Pakistan, why this sudden statement after 60 years? The NC needs to clear its stand on Kashmir. Abdullah is displaying political opportunism,” PDP youth wing leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra said.
PDP lost mandate: Omar The former Chief Minister and NC working president, Omar Abdullah, has said the ruling PDP-BJP coalition has lost the people’s mandate “owing to its vision-less policies, misgovernance and leadership deficit.”
“If elections were held now, the NC would form the government on its own,” he said at a rally in Ramban.
In an indirect reference to the change of guard in the State, he said: “Uncertainty over leadership has demoralised the administration, which is in a dilemma over who is in command. On the one hand, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is seen working as the Chief Minister in Jammu and on the other, Mehbooba Mufti is reviewing the functioning of the government in Srinagar as de facto chief executive.”
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Srinagar rally, Mr. Omar Abdullah said: “The anti-climax of his [Mr. Sayeed’s] political discourse was the virtual snub hurled by Mr. Modi, who minced no words in saying he needed no advice on Kashmir.”
