Farooq draws criticism over Article-370-for-Jammu remark

Farooq Abdullah, president of the National Conference, has said that the erstwhile Maharaja of J&K had formulated the Article 370 in 1927 to safeguard rights of Dogras of Jammu.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Peoples Conference have opposed NC president Farooq Abdullah’s statement that Article 370 was meant for Jammu people. Farooq said that the erstwhile Maharaja of J&K had formulated the Article 370 in 1927 to safeguard rights of Dogras of Jammu. “It wasn’t for the people of Kashmir,” he told reporters in Jammu.

Farooq Abdullah (PTI file)

“Here is a shocker. Of course there will be a retraction. Dr Farooq says that Article 370 was to safeguard Dogras of Jammu and not Kashmiris. A gift to subscribers of ‘All others are BJP’ discourse,” legislator and chairman of Peoples Conference Sajjad Lone wrote on X.

Even during the press conference, NC president even raised questions on the PDP saying that Article 370 was removed in their tenure as they had allied with the BJP to form coalition government which ended when the BJP took it’s support back from the PDP government and the party didn’t accept the offer of support from the NC and the Congress.

PDP spokesman Syed Tajamul said that Article 370 was abrogated when PDP wasn’t in the government. “It was abrogated when Mehbooba Mufti wasn’t in civil secretariat. Till PDP leaders were in power or government, the Article 370 was safe.”

The PDP spokesman said that the NC takes another U-turn now. “NC President Farooq Abdullah has said that Article 370 was designed to protect Dogras, not Kashmiris. This is the same person whose party took votes in the name of Article 370 while labelling other parties as B and C teams of BJP,” he said.