National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah in a interview to the Hindustan Times has said that today militants in the valley are home grown and don’t need nudge or a push from Pakistan.
In a reply to a question, the former Chief Minister said, “Today, because of the disastrous BJP-PDP coalition and mishandling by the Government of India, the home-grown dimension is a far bigger problem than the external dimension. For the longest time, your defence was that these militants are all coming from across the border; that this is a Pakistan-created problem. Today your militants are home-grown. They don’t need Pakistan’s nudge or push. That push is coming from within. What else explains that 200-plus militants have been recruited in south Kashmir alone. That was PDP’s ‘garh’ (bastion).”
While talking about the boycott of the upcoming Municipal elections, Omar said that the present dispensation in New Delhi forced them to do so by not making their stand clear on the issue of Article 35-A.
“It is the Centre that forced our hand to opt out of the elections by not making its stand clear on Article 35A… the PDP and the NC, have 43 MLAs in the 87-member assembly. That means half of the state’s legislative footprint is out of the fray. You can well imagine how representative these polls are. Also, with the country heading for four crucial state assembly elections later this year, followed by the Lok Sabha polls next year, there is no political capital available for a meaningful initiative on Kashmir. Whatever happens in J&K will now happen post the general elections,” Omar told Hindustan Times.
Recently, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the regional political parties have boycotted the upcoming Municipal and Panchayat elections due to fear, and added that they have apprehensions that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National conference (NC) will field proxy candidates in the polls.
He also added that Modi has done nothing for Kashmir.
“His Red Fort speech last year had the same promises on Kashmir which he repeated this year. Nothing has changed on the ground. There is no evidence that the new governor will operate in a political manner,” Omar said.
