SRINAGAR: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday slammed the Congress and said that the party has been ignoring the state amid Lok Sabha elections 2019.
In a tweet, Omar Abdullah said that Congress has not held even a single election meeting in the state and neither did any leadership visit Jammu and Kashmir.
“It says a lot about the Congress party and its approach to Jammu & Kashmir. There hasn’t been a single election meeting by its leadership,” Omar Abdullah said.
He also said that while PM Modi and Amit Shah did not visit Kashmir, they did not ignore the state.
“Contrast this with the number of rallies addressed by Modi ji and Amit Shah. They may not have come to the valley but they didn’t ignore the state,” Omar Abdullah said.
Omar Abdullah also said, “The Congress was in with a fighting chance in four of the six seats and in three of these, the BJP was the main opponent. It’s inexplicable how the BJP was simply given a walkover as far as the optics of the campaign were concerned.”
Ever since the Lok Sabha elections have commenced in the country, the Congress has hardly mentioned Jammu and Kashmir in its campaign. In its election manifesto which was released in April, Congress proposed to reduce the presence of the Indian Army and central armed police forces (CAPFs) in the Kashmir valley.
On AFSPA, Congress added that it will make suitable changes in the text of the laws to balance requirements of security and the protection of human rights. Apart from this, not much has been said regarding the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In contrast, the BJP has been quite eloquent while speaking about the issues in Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, one of the major points of BJP election manifesto was to eliminate Article 370 of the Constitution. Article 370 gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP manifesto also talks about annulling Article 35A of the Constitution of India. Article 35A provides special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Last week, PM Narendra Modi said the problem in Jammu and Kashmir was that a handful of families in the state made it a “tool of blackmail”. He also said that Articles 370 and 35A have done “maximum damage” to Kashmir.
Hitting out the Kashmir-centric parties (PDP and National Conference), PM Modi in Kathua had said, “These handful of families [Abdullahs and Muftis] speak one language in Kashmir and another in Delhi.” (PTK)
