JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday accused BJP and PDP of engineering communal polarisation of votes and spreading fear in the minds of people during recently-held assembly polls.
“In Kashmir Valley and Muslim-dominated areas of Jammu region, especially the Chenab Valley, PDP created fear psychosis about BJP and RSS trampling and mutilating their distinct identity to garner votes but later joined them as per a prefixed game-plan,” Abdullah said at the merger of the state unit of Samajwadi Party with National Conference.
Omar said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed pretended to be engaged in anti-saffron campaigning but did not tell his voters that PDP was going to forge an alliance with BJP.
“In fact, he projected both BJP and RSS as the number one enemy of Muslims and subtly coerced them to vote for his party. After bagging 28 seats, he virtually threw his party into the BJP’s lap by dramatising and delaying government formation.”
Omar attacked BJP, saying it bartered everything for the loaves of power.
“At the end of the day, what BJP has gained out of an alliance with PDP and with what face they will be returning back to their constituencies after making tall promises and generating euphoria?” he asked.
He said PDP and BJP has polarised the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and caused enormous damage to its secular fabric.
“In such a situation, it is incumbent upon the secular forces to come together and meet the challenge posed by deceptive, hypocritical and opportunistic alliance.”
He made a strong pitch in this regard and said his party will perform its designated role being the secular and forward looking party of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
Omar said his party’s support to Congress nominee Ghulam Nabi Azad during the elections to Rajya Sabha was a conscious decision to strengthen the forces believing in inclusiveness of the state.
“The decision to support Congress was difficult in the backdrop of opposing each other in the elections but for the overall good of the state and in the larger interest of amity it was imperative,” he said.
He hoped that all like minded secular forces will join hands to foil the sinister design of PDP-BJP combine.
Welcoming SP’s Sheikh Abdul Rehman and his party’s office bearers at a function at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan, Omar Abdullah described him a veteran legislator and parliamentarian who immensely contributed towards the development and prosperity of the state in different capacities.
Abdullah said Rehman’s joining will give a new impetus to the party and strengthen it at grass roots level.
Speaking at the occasion, Rehman said the general council of the SP’s state unit took a conscious decision to merge into National Conference keeping in view its secular credentials and service towards the people over decades.
Alongside Rehman, those who joined NC included state secretary Sheikh Mohammed Shafi, president of SP’s women wing Amrit Varsha, and party’s general secretary Pushpa Dogra.
Rehman, a two-time legislator and former MP, had been the state president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, now the BJP.