Ishtiyaq Kar
Jammu, Nov 16: Amid mounting pressure from various parties including PDP and Peoples Conference led by Sajad Lone over the resolution passed in the Assembly recently, National Conference chief Dr Farooq Abdullah Saturday said that the party is following its manifesto in spirit.
“Our manifesto is before the people and we are following it in spirit,” Dr Farooq told reporters in Jammu. About Congress claiming that resolution was for statehood not Article 370, he said: “Congress has its own compulsions. The party is under attack from Prime Minister Narendera Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and others ahead of Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections.”
On Statehood, the NC chief said: “Statehood is not going to come from the skies. But it will come… I have no doubt about it. The way elections were held in J&K, Statehood will also come. There were people who used to say that elections won’t be held in J&K but polls were held.”
He said that those who used to claim that their government will come in J&K, where are those people today. The NC chief was referring to BJP bigwigs who used to assert in their elections that BJP was going to form the government in J&K.
To a query about the debate on Kashmir in Oxford University where some people talked about “Independent Kashmir” as a solution to the J & K problem, Dr Farooq said that those talking about independent Kashmir are sitting somewhere else in the world and are far from the ground realities in Kashmir. “Independent Kashmir was never a solution to the problem. Where is our economy and resources? We are part of India and will remain so,” Dr Farooq said.
The NC chief while reacting about International Cricket Council’s (ICCs) decision of cancelling Indian team’s visit to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) for Champions’ Trophy, Dr Farooq said cricket and politics have been merged together. “This shows all is not well between India and Pakistan,” he said.
Earlier, in the day PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had stated that NC must come clean on the resolution whether it was about Article 370 or Statehood. She said there was so much ambiguity in the resolution as Congress states that it was about Statehood only. Before her, PC chief Sajad Lone too had stated that resolution was half-hearted.
