SRINAGAR, Sept 6: National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed skepticism about the credibility of political parties that align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), especially in the Kashmir region.In an interview with news agency, Abdullah also reflected on his past collaborations with the BJP, as he emphasised that in the present situation there is no meeting ground for what both parties want for the valley. The former CM stressed the participation of Independents in the previous elections but pointed to the “mushrooming of political outfits.”
“When didn’t you see independents fighting. In the 2002 government, when Mufti saahab formed an alliance with the Congress, there were atleast 14 or 15 independents at that time. I know this for the fact that they were offering their support to us as well, who were kept in the Lalit hotel, who were then part of the Mufti Sayeed government. You’ve had independents; what is changing is some mushrooming of political outfits, but to a large extent the Parliament elections have queered the pitch for them,” Abdullah said.
He also pointed out the lack of success of these parties, citing the Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari as a prime example. “Lets take, for example, the party which was given so much importance by Delhi, the Apni Party, Altaf Bukhari. PDP virtually fell apart and sort of reformed in the form of Apni Party. Today Apni Party has almost nobody. They lost their deposits in both the Parliament seats that they fought. I don’t think the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly Kashmir, are ready to take any party that is born with the relationship with the BJP,” the National Conference leader said.
“Their (BJP) political ideology and ours do not meet. There is no meeting ground between what the BJP wants for J&K and what parties like mine want for J&K,” he added.
Contrasting the current BJP government’s approach with that of the past, referring to the Vajpayee-led government, Abdullah said, “Those were different BJP, that was a BJP that talked about “Insaaniyat, Jammuriyat, Kashmiriyat.”
“That was a BJP whose Prime Minister went to the LoC and said, ‘We can change our friends but we can’t change our neighbours,’ and that Pakistan will always be a neighbour and therefore we need to look to normalise relations. That was a BJP whose Prime Minister got into a bus and went to Minar-e-Pakistan,” he said.
The National Conference and the Congress party are fighting the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir together. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has also extended its support to the Congress and National Conference alliance in the J-K polls.
The voting in the Union Territory is scheduled to be held in three phases: September 18, 25 and October 1. The counting will be held on October 8.
