NC first political party from JK to ally with BJP: Sajad Lone

Srinagar, Dec 1: Maintaining that demand for restoration of the Article 370 will never end, Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone on Wednesday said National Conference was the first political party from Jammu & Kashmir to ally with the Bharatiya Janta Party.
Talking to a group of reporters, Lone said that Omar Abdullah was the first politician from Kashmir to ally with BJP for power. “Yesterday I felt really bad for what they (NC) said about the late Mufti sahib, for allying with the BJP. They made it look like they have never made an alliance with the BJP themselves. The first one to be with BJP here in Kashmir was Omar Abdullah himself, everyone knows so,” Lone said.
Lone was referring to the period when Omar Abdullah was minister of state for external affairs and commerce in BJP-led governments between 1999 to 2002.
Terming Omar Abdullah as the biggest charlatan of Kashmir, Sajad said that he has no moral authority to blame others for disempowerment of Kashmiris as people have seen how announcements for imposition and relaxation of curfew were made by the Union Home Secretary in 2010 when he was in power. “We have already seen when you were in power during 2010, young teenagers were being killed on streets. The Union Home secretary made announcements for relaxation of curfews and not you. We also saw your role when resolution for internal autonomy was passed. You should have resigned after the autonomy resolution was rejected but you did not,” he said.
Sajad minced no words in castigating NC MPs for their role in Parliament when Article 370 was abrogated.
“When Article 370 was revoked, your members were laughing in the Parliament. If someone raised his voice and protested for it at that time, it was Fayaz Mir Sahab,” he said.
He said everyone knows the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party are the establishment parties.
“PDP was formed in 2002 and National Conference became an establishment party after 1996. We have always faced brutality and prejudice and the most of it came from the National Conference. I” he said, adding that his own father spent more than a decade in Tihar and other prisons.
Lone said the demand for restoration of Article 370 will never end. “If I stop saying it, if Omar Sahab stops saying it, someone else will say, it will never die. And there will be a day, which I am very confident of that they themselves will bring it back not because of our advocacy but because the pressure they will face for it,” he said, adding that they will get back the Article 370 either from the parliament or from the court.
He said that the Peoples Conference was among the first ones to challenge the decisions of August 5 in the Supreme Court.
“We fought for it and will keep fighting for it. For the Parliament, we have to convince the parties and it is clear BJP will not restore it but BJP won’t last forever and it depends on who will be the next ruling party,” he said. (KNO)