Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday hit out at the “hypocrisy” of its coalition partner Congress, saying the party was busy trying to claim the achievements of the National Conference (NC)-led government while “deflecting all the failures of their leaders and ministers.”
“If the Congress wants to blame NC for the points of criticism in the historic six-year-term of good governance and transparency, then all the good work done is also solely attributable to us. Congress can’t have the cake and eat it too,” Omar said while addressing an election rally in Beerwah constituency of central Kashmir’s Budgam district, after filing his nomination papers.
He termed the 2014 election very similar to the one held in 1977. “At that time (NC founder) Sheikh Sahib was bedridden and unwell and many parties – the Janata Dal, Congress – tried to grab hold of every turncoat and opportunist in our party and engineered their defections to give a perception that NC is losing ground.
Today, when our president Farooq Abdullah is unwell and undergoing treatment, the same political entities and forces, albeit in a different shape, are trying to grab hold of all possible turncoats from within our party to give a perception that we are losing ground,” he said.
The chief minister also lashed out at the BJP saying it was yet to come to terms with and accept the flag of J&K, its identity and the political sentiments of the people.
“The BJP talks about winning the hearts of our people but the fact remains that they have never accepted our flag, our special status, our identity and our political sentiments. First accept our flag and our political sentiments and then talk about winning hearts,” Omar said. He added that there were multiple voices emerging from the BJP with different, ambiguous stands on Article 370 and there was no clarity from the BJP about their policy on this very sensitive issue.
“On one hand certain BJP leaders say that they will not make Article 370 an issue and leave it to the will of the people and on the other hand the Home Minister says that Article 370 is a ‘national issue’. The BJP should know that the people of J&K will not sell their conscience for flood relief packages or money,” he added.
Omar said the people of J&K had rendered far too many sacrifices to protect and safeguard Article 370 and the special status of the State to even imagine any sort of a compromise on this issue.
“The BJP should know that we will protect our flag, our identity and our political sentiments with our blood and will never hesitate from sacrificing our lives to protect what we protected all these decades against all odds and in the face of frequent intrigues to weaken us and tear us apart,” omar asserted.
