Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 13: Hitting out at the hardline Hurriyat Conference (HC) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani for criticizing National Conference president and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, NC leader Omar Abdullah today asked whether Geelani would react to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s repeated statements that Azadi was not an option for Kashmir.
“Can Geelani show me his reaction to the Pakistan Prime Minister, who had recently repeated several times that Azadi is not an option for Kashmir. Hypocrisy is a Geelani trait,” Omar, who is working president of NC, wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.
Omar further alleged that Geelani was fighting elections and cozying up to Janata Party when his grandfather (Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) was engaged in a struggle.
“Yes, while Farooq Abdullah’s ancestors were engaged in a struggle this man was fighting elections & cozying up to Janata Party,” he tweeted.
The Pak Prime Minister had recently said that there was no option of Azadi for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Farooq Abdullah also said that Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) to Pakistan and Azadi was not possible since the State is landlocked. “J&K is surrounded by three nuclear powers—India, Pakistan and China and hence Azadi was not possible,’’ he had stated.
Meanwhile, National Conference general secretary and former Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said ex-MLA Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s double standards stood exposed in his silence over Pakistan Prime Minister’s statement as compared to his selective and uninformed outrage over National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah’s remarks.
Talking to reporters at NC headquarters, ‘Nawa-e-Subha’ in Srinagar, Sagar said ex-MLA Geelani should introspect and stop leasing his voice out to a mainstream political party over a purely personal political agenda that was based on distortion and prejudice.
“Time bears testimony to the fact that National Conference is the only political institution that has consistently and bravely fought to safeguard the State’s political identity and honour in all circumstances. Even today it is National Conference alone which is standing between various intrigues against the State’s special status and the rights of the people. This role will be noted in history and no amount of selective press statements and distortion of truth will change it”, the NC general secretary said.
Ridiculing the “baseless and malicious allegations’’ leveled against the party by PDP leader Sartaj Madni, Sagar said it was PDP’s chronic trait to divert public attention from its failures and scandals by issuing baseless statements against National Conference. “This PDP propaganda that National Conference talks about restoration of Autonomy only while in the opposition is a baseless and false argument that has no legs to stand on. Let me remind Sartaj Madni and PDP that when the autonomy report was finalized and the autonomy resolution tabled in the Assembly, and passed with two-thirds majority – it was National Conference which was in power”, Sagar said.
“PDP was formed by various intelligence agencies as their proxy soon after the autonomy resolution was passed by the Assembly. It was these covert agencies who created the ‘Self Rule’ document and advocated it through PDP to divert attention from the Autonomy Resolution. Let me remind PDP that in 1977 when Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah mounted pressure on New Delhi to restore the pre-1952 position as per the promises and assurances of the leadership of the country, it was Late PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who withdrew support from his Government as the then Congress State president and vehemently opposed the restoration of the pre-1952 position. Who sabotaged the democratically elected Government in 1984 under a well thought out conspiracy to disempower the people of Kashmir?, Sagar asked.
Follow our WhatsApp channel