Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Saturday (August 31, 2024) termed the manifesto of the National Conference (NC) as “a bundle of lies” and described Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s 100-year timeline to restore Article 370 as “the true realisation of the situation”.
“The NC manifesto is a bundle of lies. On one hand, it talks about restoring Article 370 and, on the other, Dr. Abdullah says it will take him 100 years. Dr. Abdullah knows it’s not going to come back. He has the realisation of the situation and knows the truth,” Mr. Chugh, who chaired a meeting of party leaders in Srinagar, said.
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Mr. Chugh described the NC-Congress as “an expired injection”.
“The Lok Sabha elections in April-May saw Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti getting defeated. The Gandhi-Nehru family could not even register one win in J&K,” Mr. Chug said.
He said those who once sang the tune of Pakistan and pitted residents of J&K against each other are “now seeking vote on phrases like brotherhood, harmony, and unity in diversity”.
“Dr. Abdullah is using new phraseology now. These are nothing but crocodile tears. When Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave Kashmir, Dr. Abdullah was the Chief Minister of J&K. Who was the Union Home Minister? People living together for centuries were set apart. How did Dr. Abdullah allow it?” he said.
The BJP national general secretary also described the stand of the Abdullahs on local issues as “nothing but a filmy drama”. “Just like a script from Bollywood or Hollywood, Dr. Abdullah is just reading it. The fact is that the Abdullahs have lost trust of the people of J&K. In fact, people dislike the three families, which want to take Kashmir back to 1990 and again snatch laptop and mobile phones from youth and replace it with stones. And turn Kashmir, now a tourism capital, into terrorism capital again,” he said.
The BJP leader also sought clarification from the NC over their opposition to the new reservation policy in J&K. “Do they want to take reservation away from Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis? Omar Abdullah talked about rolling back reservation policy,” he added.
Targeting the Congress, Mr. Chugh said Rahul Gandhi has started “political tourism in J&K”.
“In 50 years of his [Mr. Gandhi] life, he got to spend two ‘basants’ in Kashmir this time. Both brother and sister play snowball. This is the testament that Prime Minister Narendra Modi established peace in J&K. Rahul displays the pictures of having ice cream at Lal Chowk. It’s the same Lal Chowk where you created stone pelters. It would witness shutdowns and closure of schools. But the same is on the path of prosperity now,” he said.
