New Delhi: In a powerful and passionate interview with frequent flashes of anger and displays of emotion, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, has said that at this moment the people of Kashmir do not feel or want to be Indian. He even went so far as to say that they would rather be ruled by the Chinese, a point he reiterated when asked if he really meant it.
Abdullah, who heads the National Conference party and had been the most prominent ‘pro-India’ face in Jammu and Kashmir for the past four decades, also described the people of Kashmir as slaves who were treated as second-class citizens.
In a 44 minute interview with The wireAbdullah said that it was complete nonsense for the Bharatiya Janata Party to claim that the Kashmiri people have accepted the August 2019 changes just because there have been no protests.
He said that if the soldiers in every street and Section 144 were raised, people would come out in their tens of lakhs. Abdullah said The wire that the new domicile law was intended to flood the Valley with Hindus and create a Hindu majority. He said this has further embittered the people of Kashmir.
When asked how Kashmiris view the central government and, in particular, Prime Minister Modi and Union Interior Minister Amit Shah, Abdullah said they were deeply disappointed. He said they did not trust the central government. The trust that once united Kashmir with the rest of the country has been completely broken, he added.
Abdullah revealed details of his meeting with the prime minister approximately 72 hours before August 5, 2019, when the constitutional changes in Kashmir were announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with North Carolina leaders Farooq Abdullah and Sheikh Abdullah on August 1. Photo: PTI
He had met with the Prime Minister to request assurances about the continuation of Articles 370 and 35A. He asked the prime minister why there were so many troops in the Valley and if this was due to any perceived military threat.
Abdullah suggested that the prime minister deliberately went out of his way to give him the impression that the massive increase in troops was for security reasons. He said Modi did not say a word about sections 370 and 35A. Consequently, Abdullah walked out of that meeting believing that the two items were not in danger.
When asked, he agreed that the prime minister had tricked and misled him.
Abdullah said The wire that on August 5, 2019, when constitutional changes were suddenly announced, the National Conference and all other major political parties were seriously discredited in the eyes of Kashmir. Speaking of himself, he said that he appeared to have fallen between two stools. The Center saw him as a traitor and arrested him. The Kashmiris, on the other hand, saw him as a servant of India and said things like this “serves Abdullah.” They chided and mocked him for saying “Bharat Mata ki jai”. This left him deeply shocked and upset.
However, after seven or eight months in detention, his position and that of his party and other major parties have been considerably restored in the eyes of Kashmir. People now realize that they are not “servants of India,” he said.
Abdullah said that the National Conference and, indeed, all the other parties that had come together to issue the August 2019 Gupkar Declaration, which was reiterated on August 22 this year, were committed to restoring the dignity of Kashmiris. . He said this meant reinstating Articles 370 and 35A and restoring statehood. He said he would fight for this, but always in peace, until his last breath.
Abdullah said he had faith in the Supreme Court and hoped it would stop postponing the petition his party had filed and listen to it quickly. In the interview, in fact, he appealed to the judges of the Supreme Court to hear the constitutional case quickly.
When asked why he had not raised this issue during the current session of parliament, which ends on Wednesday, September 23, he said he was not given time. He said that he had gone to meet the Lok Sabha chairman Om Birla, along with deputies from Congress, Trinamool, DMK and the communist parties, and the speaker had assured them that time would be allocated for a discussion. But that never happened. When asked if he believed the government had intervened and told the speaker not to give time, Abdullah said he did not know, but agreed that the speaker had not kept his word.
Abdullah said The wire that in the best interests of Kashmir, the Mufti and Abdullah families have buried their past differences and united. He said that, today, Mehbooba Mufti was politically close to both his son Omar and himself. He said he was in contact with her frequently, every week.
In one of the angriest moments of the interview, Abdullah asked why Mehbooba Mufti had not been released. “Is she a criminal?” throne.
When asked if her imprisonment had started to affect her, Abdullah asked a question in return: “How can it not be? After all, he is a human being. “
Abdullah added that whether the National Conference will participate in the next state elections is a decision that will be made, first, democratically within the National Conference itself and he, as president, will not impose his personal thinking. The decision will also be made in concert with all other parts of Gupkar, he said.
Abdullah said that the announcement of his son Omar Abdullah in a recent Indian express The article that he will not participate in the elections as long as Kashmir remains a Union territory is Omar’s personal decision and not the position of the National Conference. However, he added that if Omar does not want to dispute, it is his right. On his own, he said, he would abide by whatever decision the party made collectively.
The above is a paraphrased summary of Farooq Abdullah’s interview with Karan Thapar for The wire. The full interview will offer a better understanding of the many points raised by Abdullah, as well as the strength and passion with which he has spoken.
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