Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 2: Former Chief Minister and president of the National Conference, Dr Farooq Abdullah, today dared the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to take the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) from Pakistan militarily.
Abdullah while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in Srinagar today asked the BJP “why are they enraged with his statement on solution to the problem of Jammu and Kashmir when same solution was suggested by BJP leader and former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee”.
The NC president dared BJP to take PoK from Pakistan militarily. “When Vajpayee went to Pakistan in bus he spoke to Nawaz Sharief and suggested same which I am saying. That you (Pakistan) keep this and we (India) will keep that. He was BJP’s Prime Minister, wasn’t he? So when BJP’s PM had suggested this then why are they (BJP) enraged today with same suggestion by me? If they have any other solution and they think they can take that (PoK) militarily, why are not they doing that then?”, he asked.
The NC president said that he doesn’t see any other solution except the one he is suggesting. He said that after doing politics all these years he doesn’t think India or Pakistan has power to snatch PoK and J&K respectively from each other. “We (Kashmiris) are dying in both parts. One explosion occurs here and tourists disappear. We have no factory here. You see shopkeepers, houseboat owners and hotel owners are sitting idle, there is no business. They are scared of terror. Tell me when shall this end? When will we sleep peacefully?”, he said while defending his remarks. “One day they (India and Pakistan) have to accept this solution even if revelation comes from Sky. I don’t see any other way,” he said.
“If Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) becomes Pakistan’s region with the similar autonomy that we have and by that then the borders will become easy and everybody from here can have access to that place and everybody from that Kashmir can have access to this place,” Abdullah said. “So we can trade (by turning Line of Control into permanent border), boys can marry girls from there (PoK) and their boys can marry girls from here. It will be like a joint family.”
The former Chief Minister said the “solution” would settle many problems between India and Pakistan and there would be no need to deploy troops in large numbers on both the sides. “Once this is acceptable, then we will not need all the troops here and they will not need to put all the troops there and we will have a happy situation,” he said.
He claimed that there are some people “whose shops are running due to lingering” Kashmir issue and they are averse to any solution. “The only trouble with this is that their shops would be shut; the shops of those who want to continuously see the issue of Kashmir alive. If the issue is resolved then their shops would shut as they are alive due to division,” he said.
Abudullah said his party has no problem in accepting any other solution “which can create good relations among the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and India and Pakistan”.
The NC president attributed the recent meeting of India and Pakistan premiers to his remarks and said: “Now see what God does after my remarks. What happened is that the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met at Paris with love and wholeheartedly. It is all because of my remarks that there is no solution (other than what he proposed)”.
Refusing to apologize for his remarks, he said: “… I am not going to apologize to anybody. I am a free citizen of this country and as a free citizen I put my view. What am I supposed to do if they (critics) are enraged?” He added that war is no solution to the issues of India and Pakistan. “Is there any solution? We had so many wars. Did they solve our problems,” he said.
Abdullah expressed dismay over Rs 8,000 crore relief to flood victims from Rs 80,000 crore package and said it won’t solve problems of people. He castigated ruling coalition and said they are not visible on ground.
Follow our WhatsApp channel