‘Stop misleading people, talk about present situation’: Omar Abdullah responds to PM Modi's ‘dynasty’ attack
From his rally at Doda in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister had attacked ‘dynastic politics,’ prompting this response from the ex-chief minister.
Responding to Narendra Modi's attack on ‘dynastic politics’, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah asked the prime minister to talk about the ‘present situation’ in the Valley, and not ‘mislead’ people by raising the ‘bogey’ of ‘dynastic politics.’
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“The PM made a speech in Doda…It has not been 24 hours since the attack in which two army soldiers lost their lives while an encounter is going on in north Kashmir,” he told reporters in Kulgam, shortly after the PM's speech on Sunday.
Abdullah, the son of NC supremo and ex-CM Farooq Abdullah, was talking about the encounters in Kishtwar and Baramulla, respectively.
He also took a jibe at the Modi-led BJP government, in power at the Centre since May 2014, over its August 2019 revocation of Article 370 that gave ‘special status’ to Jammu and Kashmir.
“The people were told that the violence in Kashmir would ‘vanish’ after Article 370 abrogation. However, encounters are still going on,” Abdullah said.
The former Union minister also pointed to how the BJP had previously been a partner of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), another ‘dynastic’ outfit and the NC's arch-rival.
“When the BJP needed these families, then we were not responsible for the destruction (of J&K). When it had an alliance with the PDP, there was nothing wrong with that. When (ex-PM) Vajpayee had to make a minister and he picked me, there was nothing wrong with us,” he remarked.
The BJP could even ask for the PDP's support should it be needed after the polls, Abdullah stated.
Jammu and Kashmir's first assembly polls since December 2014, will be held on September 18, 25, and October 1. The counting is on October 8.