Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, on Thursday questioned the stand of National Conference with regard to participation in the Assembly elections.
“National Conference (NC) owes an explanation to the people of Jammu & Kashmir for its U-turn on 35A. This party boycotted the recently held urban local body elections with the pledge that it will not participate in an election till the issue of 35A was settled, but now is demanding dissolution of State Assembly and is ready to contest the elections in a bid to seek ministerial berths, regardless of whether the issue of 35A is settled or not,” Singh, as per a statement issued here, said.
He alleged this was yet another “evidence of the National Conference’s long history of treacherous opportunism”.
“The most notorious example its U-turns was staged by Sheikh Abdullah in 1975 when he suddenly gave up his 20 year old demand for so-called plebiscite, to grab the chair of Chief Minister on the terms and conditions laid down by Indira Gandhi,” he added.
As per the statement, Singh was speaking to media-persons at the sidelines of the inaugural session of the 3-day International Conference on Geriatric Medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.
Singh was responding to a tweet by former Chief Minister and NC Working President Omar Abdullah who had written that it was “sensible of BJP” to have cleared stand on Governor’s rule.
“While the NC leadership has patronizingly commented on the sensibility of BJP, the people of Kashmir have grown wary of the National Conference’s lack of sensibility and lack of sensitivity,” he added.
He said, the “so-called mainstream” Kashmir-centric political parties like NC, “had done greatest harm to Kashmir by being unfaithful to their own masses with the sole objective of perpetuating their dynasty rule”.
Earlier, addressing the inaugural session of the 3-day conference as chief guest, Singh claimed that the Modi-Government accords high priority to healthcare and prevention services.
“The most striking example of this, he said, is the launch of Ayushman Bharat programme, which is possibly the biggest health insurance scheme in public sector anywhere in the world.”
Director AIIMS Dr Randeep Guleria and HoD Geriatric Department Dr Prashun Chatterjee also spoke on the occasion, the official added.
