Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that Kashmiris are not terrorists and have no intention to be separated from India but ” We demand India that was envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi.”
Farooq Abdullah presented his role of India in a program in New Delhi on Thursday. “We are not terrorists. We are not anti-India. But we cannot accept the country where there is no equality. We want India, but he wants a Mahatma Gandhi seen India”, he said. “We are not terrorists, we don’t want to get separate from India, nor we are against India, But we will not accept that India which does not believe in equality of people and rather propagates discrimination of people on the basis of Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs,”
Farooq Adullah said Abdullah attacked the BJP, accusing it of “dividing the nation on religion” and alleged that the present dispensation had negated the vision of freedom fighters who made sacrifices to free India from the shackles of British rule. “Kashmiris demand that India which was envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi , ” National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said. “At that point of time, the freedom stalwarts did not think in terms of Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs but their paramount mission was to seek freedom for India, the abode of all faiths,” he said.
Farooq Abdullah has said he will fight for Article 35-A until his death, warning that the fallout of any tinkering with the Constitutional provision would be difficult to control. Article 35-A, which gives special rights and privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, is currently facing a legal challenge in the Supreme Court. “I will fight against them till I go down in my grave,” Abdullah said, adding that “they only remember Kashmir and not Himachal (Pradesh), Arunachal (Pradesh) and Nagaland”,
Which also enjoy the special position. On August 6, the Supreme Court had said a three-judge bench would decide whether the pleas challenging Article 35-A should be referred to a five-judge Constitution bench for examining the larger issue of alleged violation of the doctrine of basic structure of the Constitution.