SRINAGAR – Rubbishing the claim made by the National Conference general secretary that the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was not a party to the 1975 accord Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) today said denial of their actions was nothing new for the house of Abdullahs.
In a statement the party chief spokesperson Naeem Akhtar said such backtracking came naturally to NC leadership as they thrived only in the grey space of Kashmir politics while the people of the state suffered as a result of their acts of omission and commission.
He said it is inconceivable that the accord could have been only a handiwork of the late Beg saheb without participation of Sheikh saheb though its only objective was installing Sheikh saheb as chief minister and making way for his successors to the throne.
Sheikh Nazir claimed in an interview today that “Sheikh saheb was not directly involved in the 1975 exercise but according to him, it was Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg and G Parthasarthy who were talking to each other”.
Akhtar said the virtual disowning of 1975 accord by the Abdullah family as some kind of an underhand act of the late Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg was yet another specimen of betrayal of a close associate of the late Sheikh but that was not its only import. ” This is an attempt at rewriting history to divert attention from the latest phase of NC seeking salvation and survival as an appendage of congress which obviously raises questions about its claims to a regional character”, he said.
The PDP leader said denying a historical fact was nothing new for the NC as the party denied even having been a party to accession after enjoying power without elections for five years raising the banner of plebiscite. He said though during its rule between 1947 and 1953 the NC leadership let loose a reign of terror, exiling and imprisoning opponents on charges of being
Pakistani agents and ‘arresting’ radio sets, the NC leadership made a volte face and misled people in the name of plebiscite. “The accord of 1975 was another u turn through which NC secured power once again without elections and accepted all the erosion in state’s autonomous character. Not only this, the NC leadership even gave away the right to make changes in the nomenclature of the governor and chief minister under state constitution in July 1975, only five months after the accord” Akhtar said.
Wishing advocate Sheikh Nazir Ahmed a speedy recovery, the PDP spokesperson said the people of the state had by now become used to amusing claims, charges, denials, retractions and apologies by Dr Mustafa Kamal on various issues relating to New Delhi and congress but it seems the entry of Nazir saheb into the discourse is necessitated by the latest round of mun tu shudam by Omar Abdullah with Congress that threatens to dilute NC’s very existence. He said Nazir saheb’s statement and its endorsement by Dr Kamal reflects either a rift in the family or it is yet another display of the division of labor between its various members to cement it’s ties with powers in Delhi by Dr Farooq and Omar Abdullah and the rest trying to fool public in Kashmir through statements that only add to the political confusion and miseries of people.
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