BJP shying away from elections, not ready to face people: Omar

Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, Jan 18: Former Chief Minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah today said that BJP is shying away from the elections as they are not ready to face the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

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Addressing the party workers at NC headquarters in Srinagar, Omar said that the BJP cannot shy away from elections citing excuses of weather and security situation.
“The Election Commission has made it clear that they have given green signal for holding elections in J&K as they are done with the preparations. They had made it clear that the ball was in the court of the Central Government to take a call,” he said.
He said that they are not ready to face people as the promises made by them have not been delivered.
“This explains that BJP is not ready for the Assembly elections because they aren’t ready to face the people as all the claims made by them on progress and development have fallen flat. Nearly four years have passed, where are those promised jobs, investments and developmental projects?” he asked.
“For how long can they run from elections, one or the other day they have to hold them and face people,” Omar said.
The NC leader said that the BJP will try to grab power in J&K by electoral fraud.
“They will try their best to grab power through electoral fraud, manipulation and spending money. People have to decide if they want to sell their conscience for few pennies or secure the future of their coming generations. The power in the hands of people,” he said.
Omar said the Roshni scheme was never rejected by anyone and retrieving the land provided to people under this scheme will be tantamount to betraying the people.
He said under this scheme, Jammu farmers have been benefited the most and taking back the lands would be a betrayal to them, therefore the Government should reconsider its decision.
However, he said as far as State land is concerned, illegal occupation of land anywhere, if found, should be retrieved, but it seems that such actions are aimed to harass the people as the Government has failed to improve the situation on the ground.
He said such decisions are aimed at diverting attention from the main issues of deteriorating security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. “Rajouri killings and providing new weapons to the Village Defence Committee (VDC) members are a proof of the present deteriorating situation. Thus, to divert the attention of people, several issues are being taken up and the land issue is also the part of it,” he said.
He said that Congress should ensure that Bharat Jodo Yatra will not be used by any leader to whitewash themselves.
Omar was reacting to a query about former Minister Choudhary Lal Singh’s participation in the Yatra.
He said the role of the leader in Rassana rape incident is known and the Congress should ensure that the Yatra is not used by such leaders to whitewash themselves.