Takes on Mehbooba for accusing NC, Pak of fomenting unrest
After forcing the coalition to admit the adjournment motion, moved by the Opposition to suspend normal business to hold a discussion on the five-month Kashmir unrest, National Conference working president Omar Abdullah today dared Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to take responsibility for the 2016 turmoil in the Valley which claimed nearly 100 lives.
Initiating debate on the adjournment motion on the Kashmir situation, Omar minced no words in attacking his arch-rival Mehbooba Mufti for shifting responsibilities onto others for the bloodshed and the destruction.
“If you are not willing to take responsibility for the 2016 turmoil in Kashmir then you have no right to remain in the chair,” Omar said while reminding treasury benches that when he was the CM and Kashmir was on the boil in 2010, he never blamed anybody else for the disaster but himself.
“You (Mehbooba Mufti) held everyone responsible for the situation, be it the National Conference, Pakistan, separatists, parents and your own officers. But, unfortunately, you have never taken responsibility as the head of the government,” Omar said.
“During 2010, I didn’t blame parents, Pakistan, separatists or anyone else but took full responsibility,” Omar said while mentioning that some people were trying to compare the present turmoil with that of the 2010 unrest.
”We are more concerned and worried about the prevailing situation,” he said, adding that the National Conference “is still playing a similar role when it was in the government and you (PDP) are still behaving like you are in the Opposition”.
Leading the charge from opposition benches, the NC working president took the Chief Minister to task for her contradictory statements since Burhan Wani’s killing on July 8. “You are not yet clear what happened on July 8,” Omar quipped while quoting the contradictory statements given by the coalition partners and the police department. He accused the government of taking the post-July 8 situation lightly and focusing only on Wani’s native area and failing to control the situation elsewhere in Valley.
Omar hit out at Mehbooba for criticising the Opposition’s efforts to meet the President, Prime Minister and other leaders in New Delhi when Kashmir was burning. “We had not gone there to ask for your resignation and destabilise the government, which you did during 2010, but we wanted the leadership to take concrete and credible steps towards the Valley,” he said.
“You (Mehbooba) said if you will fail, you will step down. It has been proven that you have failed in controlling the situation, so what decision have you taken,” he said, adding that he knew that the PDP leader would never step down.
The NC leader also blamed the government for the deaths of an ATM guard and a school lecturer, claiming that they were innocent and murdered. He sought a probe into the cases. “Show sympathy, take responsibility, this is what we expect from you,” said Omar.
Congress Legislature Party leader Nawang Rigzin Jora in his address said the “unholy alliance between the PDP and the BJP had increased alienation among the masses”. He said there was a feeling among people that both coalition partners had betrayed them.
Peoples Conference member and minister in the coalition government Sajjad Gani Lone countered Omar during his speech. Lone regretted that the Opposition was trying to settle political scores over human tragedies. “A majority of us present in the House are victims of violence so it is very unfortunate that we are indulging in petty politics on the issue,” Lone said. He said it was the Congress, not the BJP, which was the main culprit for the prevailing situation in the Valley.
