National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah has said that his party had for the first time in contemporary history developed good relationship with both India and Pakistan and "we are no more dubbed as agents of one or other country."
Omar was addressing a public meeting at Mujgund in Batamaloo constituency. He said NC had contributed its lot in building pressure on both the countries to look for more durable solutions to their problems. He said there was no military solution to the problem and that a durable, purposeful and institutionalised dialogue process internally and externally could go a long way in addressing the concerns of the parties concerned, reports Greater Kashmir.
Omar alleged the ruling coalition had unsuccessfully used the discontent of the masses to bargain for, and strengthen their own privileged position by exploiting the sentiments of the Kashmiri people through hollow sloganeering. "Congress and PDP were two faces of the same coin and their differences are manipulative and stage managed to add to the confusion in the state," he said.
Omar claimed that the demand for autonomy - a legitimate right of the people guaranteed under constitution - was based on the very principal of co-existence and communal harmony.
Taking cue from the plight of the people in the state, Omar said, one could not hope for much justice from the present political arrangement where fulfilment came to very few among the needy.
"Basic amenities are not available to the people, huge armies of unemployed youth feel betrayed, development of infrastructure has been completely halted and the capital town has been transformed into a garbage dump. The chief minister himself has admitted that out of Rs 5,000 crores received this year from the centre for development of infrastructure, only 100 crores has been spent due to the fear of massive corruption. Work culture and double shift proved hoax and transfers and postings a recurring income by corrupt means," he said.
Omar further said that NC was conscious of its onerous responsibility of shaping the Kashmir on the visionary document of " Naya Kashmir" underlying the principal of equal opportunities for all.
Speaking on the occasion, the provincial president NC Mehboob Beg demanded that ensuing session of the legislative assembly should be shifted immediately from the legislative complex to some suitable place in the outskirts of Srinagar because the people were subjected to many hardships on security reasons. He said, "The people whom we are supposed to represent are made to suffer on the pretext of security situation and the normal life was crippled in the city due to extraordinary security arrangements," he said.