Omar attacks BJP, says J&K polls deferred on one pretext or other as they aren’t ready to face voters

Jammu, Mar 20 (PTI) National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Monday attacked the BJP, alleging that the “delay” in assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is because they are not brave enough to face voters as they have failed to mitigate people’s problems.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, without naming the ruling party at the Centre, said they have also not been able to keep their promise of bringing large-scale investments and create job opportunities in the Union Territory.

“They are not ready to face the people and are escaping from (assembly) elections on one pretext or the other. They used the pretext of delimitation of constituencies and revision of electoral rolls which stands completed long back. They talked about weather not being conducive but have no justification to further delay the polls,” he said in a veiled attack on the BJP.

The National Conference (NC) vice president was addressing a public meeting at Bajalta in Nagrota constituency – his first in the city after the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two union territories in 2019.

Wearing a white turban, Abdullah said the weather is getting pleasant, they have only two reasons for delaying the polls further, one could be the worsening security situation which they claim has improved and the second being that they are afraid to face the voters.

“If they had been brave, they would have gone for the elections. After today’s public rally, some people (among the BJP) who were supportive of early elections will also feel jittery,” he said in an apparent reference to former legislator Devender Singh Rana who resigned from the post of NC provincial president and joined the BJP in October 2021.

Abdullah said the public meeting has proved beyond any doubt that the NC is alive both in the Kashmir and the Jammu province.

“People come and go but those who have love for the organisation and are not linked to any particular individual will stay back because they are with the party’s principles, flag and agenda,” he said.

The NC will show its real strength during the assembly elections, Abdullah asserted.

“They will try to polarise the situation as they are doing elsewhere in the country. We have to frustrate their attempts by standing united,” he said.

The former chief minister said for the first time he is witnessing a government which “feels happiness in inflicting difficulties on the people. It will be better to get rid of this government as soon as possible”.

“They are only engaged in propaganda, drama and showoff Sometime back, we heard of an outside company making an investment in Srinagar but it proved much ado about nothing,” the NC leader said referring to the Emaar group of United Arab Emirates laying the foundation of a mega mall project worth Rs 500 crore on Sunday.

He said his party was accused of being an obstacle in the path of development and job creation, and asked what happened over the past three years. “There is no new project, and recruitment for government jobs was cancelled owing to scams,” Abdullah said.

Those who celebrated the abrogation of Article 370 in Ladakh and Jammu are equally sad, he claimed.
“We were angry from day one but there were some people who celebrated it with a hope of ‘New J&K’. The people in Jammu suffered economically because of the stopping of the darbar move and anti-encroachment drive, while Leh people are openly expressing that they were happy to be part of J&K,” the NC leader said.

The erstwhile state was divided into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with Lt Governor-led administrations.

Abdullah also took a dig at the administration over an alleged imposter, Kiran Patel, who was arrested in Srinagar early this month and said “the deserving are not getting their rights but the frauds are getting benefited”.

“Instead of finding the reality of Patel before treating him as a VIP, they bowed before him. My colleagues who faced (terror) attacks were not given an escort, he (Patel) was given adequate security, five star accommodation and taken to LoC with many officers lined up to seek recommendations for transfer and promotions,” he said.

He said nobody can deny the differences between Kashmir and Jammu as far as weather and culture is concerned but what “we witness today is that both the regions are having common sufferings, people are annoyed and gripped by despondency”.

Referring to anti-encroachment drives in the Union Territory, Abdullah said he was surprised to see the pictures when they took out a bulldozer rally in Kashmir to frighten the public. “When people protested and the situation became tense, the bulldozer drive was stopped at the behest of Delhi,” he claimed.

He also talked about the imposition of property tax and said “they are saying only a handful of income will be generated but if that is the case, then what is the need for imposing the tax to harass the public”.