Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Aug 6: Former MLA Karnah Kafeel Ur Rehman, who recently joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), today accused the National Conference (NC) of “betrayal”, alleging that the party considers its veterans nothing but “trash”.
Addressing a press conference at the PDP headquarters here today Rehman said that the NC’s new leadership has a different mindset and wants to run the party on its own terms.
He said his party membership was cancelled, which led to his exit.
“I was expelled by the NC itself because the new leadership has a different mindset and there were grave contradictions. There are a few things that can be said, some cannot,” he said.
He alleged that the party leadership considers the old guards as “trash”, including their spokesperson, whom he claimed also holds the same view.
“They cancelled my membership on the grounds that when candidates were weighed ahead of elections, a particular candidate was selected – and I did not attend any of his rallies,” he said.
He stressed that the NC leadership has its own way of running the party. “Many senior leaders of the party have told me that today it was my turn and soon it will be theirs.”
The former MLA accused the NC of exploiting religious sentiments during the recently held assembly elections and then “betraying” people who, he said, are now full of remorse.
“During elections, the people in Karnah were told they were going to lose graveyards and mosques, but in the end, they didn’t even allow a discussion on the Waqf Bill. They exploited sentiments,” he said.
He said the party has resorted to such tactics in the past as well.
“The Waqf Bill was not allowed to be discussed by the Speaker in the Assembly. People are regretting it now; the votes they secured were by exploiting religious sentiments. They had even taken some fatwas and spread them around.”
Rehman also accused NC leaders, without naming anyone, of speaking one language in Srinagar and another in Delhi.
“They speak in a different voice in Jammu and a different one here. They have brought the party – founded by Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah – to this level. Deceit and fraud will not work anymore,” he said, adding that staying with the NC had become impossible for him.
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