Yogesh
Jammu, Oct 3: National Conference president and the Member Parliament Dr Farooq Abdullah Tuesday said if everything was fine in Jammu and Kashmir then why elections are not being held?
He said this while announcing peaceful protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in Jammu on October 10 after chairing the two hour long meeting of opposition parties in Jammu.
Flanked by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami besides members of opposition parties, Dr Farooq said: “GoI very conveniently uses the security for their own benefits. When it comes to host G20 the situation is peaceful but when it comes to holding of elections, the government goes another way.”
The NC chief said that even LG administration claims that Jammu and Kashmir is peaceful and on path of growth.
“If the same is true then why the constitution is suspended in Jammu and Kashmir,” the former chief minister of the erstwhile J&K State said, adding that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir keep chanting that everything is fine here, but the big question is that if everything is normal here and despite the delimitation being done, finalising the voter list, why are elections not being conducted?” he asked.
He further said that government has promised to hold local bodies and panchyat elections but changed the decision overnight to make people more confused.
“The constitution is suspended and the democratic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are under attack,” he alleged, adding, “We all have decided to stage a peaceful protest on October 10 and are seeking necessary permission from the divisional commissioner about the same”.
On absence of other prominent leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) and Altaf Bukhari’s Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP), the NC Chief said that the parties of both the leaders are the “government parties” and that’s why they did not come to the meeting.
Those who attended the meeting included PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, her party’s general secretary Amreek Singh Reen, Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Vikar Rasool Wani, its working president Raman Bhalla, CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, Dogra Sadar Sabha chief Gulchain Singh Charak and Jammu and Kashmir Shiv Sena (UBT) president Manish Sahni. Awami National Conference Senior Vice President Muzaffar Shah, National Conference provincial president, Jammu, Rattan Lal Gupta, party MP Hasnain Masoodi, Mission Statehood president Sunil Dimple and former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman.
Representatives of various other parties, including the CPI, Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the Internationalist Democratic Party also attended the meeting.
