Rao agreed to separate J&K ‘PM’: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah claimed Tuesday that former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had agreed to restore executive posts like Sadr-e-Riyasat (president) and Wazir-e-Azam (prime minister) to Jammu and Kashmir.

He said Mr Rao had in a televised address in the West African state of Burkina Faso approved of J&K having a Sadr-e-Riyasat (president of the state) and Wazir-e-Azam (prime minister). “He has on record said that ‘as far as giving autonomy to the state of J&K is concerned, the sky is the limit’,” Dr Abdullah, who is seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha from his home constituency of Srinagar, said while addressing an election rally at Ganderbal, near here.

He said: “When he came back I asked him that much of the special status has been eroded since 1953, to which he answered that once in government the forum of the Assembly should be used to undo the erosions”.

Dr Abdullah added: “We too didn’t budge from asking for the restoration of our infringed rights. Once in power in 1996, we got the autonomy resolution passed with a huge majority in the Assembly. Those who say the resolution was cast out are wrong... the document is still with the Union government and, one day, the Centre has to implement it. There is no other way... peace can’t return to the state until autonomy is restored.”

The National Conference president further said: “In the run-up to Beigh-Parthasarthy Accord of 1995, my father Sher-e-Kashmir (Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah) had written to (late) Mrs Indira Gandhi, asserting forcefully that he seeks relations with the Union on the actual conditions of the Accession with India. The letter is still in the repositories of the concerned departments of the Union government.”

Dr Abdullah said those who created the ruckus about the assertions of his son and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah’s speech wherein he sought the restoration of the status of the state on the original terms of accession are “unqualified and untaught about the historical facts”.  He said: “It was our party which after Maharaja Hari Singh executed the accession with the Union of India sought unimpeachable constitutional safeguards for our state under the Delhi Agreement. Our party has always sought restoration of the relations of our state with the Union of India on the original terms of accession, which only gave three subjects of communications, defence and foreign affairs to the Union and the  rest to the people of the state.”

He added: “However, after the unconstitutional arrest of the Sher-e-Kashmir, the special status was dented to an extent that it remained a pale shadow of what Sheikh Sahib was able to achieve. We will not be fazed or frightened by the threats of the BJP-RSS. We will continue to seek our rights that were infringed upon.”

He also said he or his party or the people of the state will not be fazed by the threats of the BJP-RSS on scrapping the special status of the state and said those who are saying Article 370 and Article 35A are temporary provisions are wittingly or unwittingly affirming that the accession was also temporary.

He warned that the relationship between J&K and the rest of the country will be over if Article 370 is scrapped. “Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley said they will abolish Article 35A and Article 370. I dare them to even touch these constitutional provisions,” he said.