Will pass Kashmiri Hindu Shrines Management Bill once in power: Abdullah

Displaced Kashmiri Pandits betrayed by those who claim to be their messiahs, he says

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said displaced Kashmiri Pandits were betrayed by those who claim to be their messiahs and promised to pass the Kashmiri Hindu Shrines Management Bill once in power to protect them.

“The NC had tabled the Kashmiri Hindu Shrines Management Bill in 2009. I was threatened not to get this legislation through. Today they are pretending to be the well-wishers of Kashmiri Pandits, who they are using to strengthen their vote bank,” Dr. Abdullah said at a day-long convention organised in Jammu.

He said when the Centre with a majority in Parliament can get the Bills on farm laws through, why can’t Bills regarding Kashmiri Pandits? “The Kashmiri Hindu Shrines Management Bill will definitely be passed when the NC will be mandated to form the Government. They will never pass such a Bill,” he said.

He said J&K will never go into the hands of those who believed in “engineering ethnic cleansing”. “You [Kashmiri Pandits] have suffered a lot and what happened then had never been even comprehended.”

He said the enemy was taking advantage of hatred brewing among the communities. “There is the need to shun this for the larger interest of peace and harmony. The killing of Makhan Lal Bindroo and the subsequent viral video chat between a Pandit brother and sister, which is full of venom. This kind of hatred resulted in the return of Kashmiri Pandits to Jammu and the Government is shamefully continuing to be in denial,” he said.

He accused former J&K Governor Jagmohan of “facilitating the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits with the promise to get them back in two months. Jagmohan got Padma Vibhushan but never brought KPs back”.

Omar downplays bickering with Gupkar

Downplaying the recent bickering between his party and the Gupkar alliance partner Peoples Democratic Party, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the alliance was working towards its defined cause.

“The existence of the Peoples Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is for a certain cause and every member is doing their job at their level. The members of the PAGD had recently held a meeting to discuss further strategies. It is not that the PAGD has to hold meetings everyday. The existence of PAGD would be visible only by the results and not by holding meetings,” he said in Baramulla.

Mr. Abdullah said he did not intend to seek votes during his recent tour of the Chenab region. “Power is not our destiny. It is a means to achieve our goal. Our destination is beyond getting power. We are not averse to the idea of being in power. If our goal requires us to have it, we will with the active support of the masses,” Mr. Abdullah said.

He said the reason behind his outreach to the general public and workers is to congratulate them on their victory in the District Development Council elections. “It is the people who have deflated the claims of certain quarters that post abrogation, the NC was poised to get wiped out. Most of the party leaders were caged. Yet, by dint of your deep-rooted faith in your party, you came out and defeated those forces who wanted us obliterated,” he said.

Mr. Abdullah said the Centre’s claim that everything is normal in J&K was contrary to what is happening on the ground.

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