M A I N   N E W S

NC snaps ties with NDA
Tribune News Service and PTI

Srinagar, July 12
The National Conference President, Mr Omar Abdullah, here today announced the withdrawal of his party’s support to the BJP-led- NDA government at the Centre, regretting that the decision was much delayed. He said the NC would continue its demand for greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir and protection of Article 370 granting special status to the state.

At a press conference in the party head office, the Nawa-e-Subh complex here, the former Union Minister of State for External Affairs said the party’s alliance with the NDA had proved costly for the NC. The decision to withdraw had been taken at a meeting of the Central Working Committee of the National Conference here on Thursday, Mr Omar Abdullah said. He said a formal letter of withdrawal would be sent to the NDA Convener after the press conference.

In reply to a question, Mr Omar Abdullah said the Central Government had mishandled the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He said his party’s stand was that bilateral talks were the best to resolve Kashmir issue and the Centre should not have “involved” a third party in it. “The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had been asking the USA to tell Pakistan to stop creating trouble in the state. That is bringing a third party into the picture,” Mr Omar said. He agreed with the views of his father and former Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, on bringing world leaders like Nelson Mandela into the picture to get the leadership of India and Pakistan to move closer.

The reconstituted Central Working Committee, Mr Omar Abdullah said, had discussed in detail this issue, besides the political situation in Jammu and Kashmir and reasons for the NC’s debacle in the last Assembly elections. “There were numerous opportunities when the NC should have left the NDA government at the Centre,” the party president said. He said various issues like the Centre’s decision on negotiations with Kashmiri separatists, role of the NDA government in condoning Gujarat violence and the use of POTA against a single community were the other reasons for the decision to withdraw the support.

With this, the NC, which has five out of six members from the state in the Lok Sabha, has snapped its five-year old ties with the NDA. Mr Omar Abdullah ruled out the possibility of any alternative alliance.