Excelsior Correspondent
SRIANGAR, Apr 8: Six days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked youth of Kashmir to choose between tourism and terrorism, opposition National Conference (NC) working president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said the militancy in Kashmir didn’t erupt because of lack tourists in late eighties and there is no relation between the two.
Speaking to reporters after addressing a by-election meeting at Pulwama district of South Kashmir, Omar said the highest number of tourists who visited the State was one year before the militancy in 1987-88.
“If the terrorism started despite tourism then, it is obvious that there is no relation between terrorism and tourism. This issue is a political one and it was Mehbooba’s duty to present the real picture before the PM. But she failed in her duty and that is why the PM said it,” he said.
The former Chief Minister took a jibe at PM Modi’s statement and said if he says that the youth here in Kashmir have to choose between tourism and terrorism “then tell me about those areas where there is not much scope for tourism”. “Then are we directly pushing the people in those areas towards terrorism? It is easy to indulge in such statements but such statements have no relations with the ground realities,” he said.
Omar castigated Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and asked her what she has done other than raking up 1987 elections. “Her Government is two-and-a-half-years old now. Modi’s Government is more than three years old now. Let them show what they have done in these years, rather than going to 1987”, he added.
“There have been many elections since 1987. The people made their decision after 1987 many a times. Mehbooba should not hide her failures behind 1987. Let her talk of 2015, 2016 and 2017 when she failed to raise our issues in front of the Prime Minister (at a rally on April 2) at Udhampur,” he said.
The NC working president said the Mehbooba had such a good opportunity to speak about the State during Modi’s Udhampur rally “but she only said two things – one she congratulated the PM for UP win and that she was grateful to the PM for saving her Government in 2016”. “If this is her leadership, (then) that is why she is talking about 1987,” he added.
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