Byelections a fight for secularism: Farooq

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 25

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today termed the upcoming byelections in the Kashmir valley as a fight for the “survival of secularism” as he addressed a rally in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.

The rally was also addressed by the party’s working president Omar Abdullah, general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather and Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra.

Farooq, whose NC has allied with the Congress, in his address, described the upcoming byelections to two Kashmir parliamentary constituencies as “not just the battle of ballot but fight for survival of secularism”.

“The outcome of the two parliamentary seats from Kashmir, should, therefore, send a terse message to the fascist forces, which are overtly and covertly trying to establish a foothold through the PDP,” Farooq said.

He said the victory of NC and Congress candidates from the Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies has to be massive “to halt the tentacles of communal forces”. “The minorities in India are living under perpetual fear and uncertainty and if the divisive forces are not stopped, the day is not far when the situation in the Valley will become grimmer,” he said.

The NC chief blamed the PDP for facilitating the BJP’s growth in the state. “For loaves of power, the PDP betrayed the mandate by hobnobbing with the RSS after seeking votes against them in the first instance,” he said.

Omar, state’s former Chief Minister, asked people to realise the “danger of fascism hovering over the state and get united to defeat it with full might”. He said the current elections involved larger issues “especially threat of communal forces” and the mis-governance of the PDP-BJP government could not be kept under the carpet.

“The only achievement the PDP can brag about is that the people were deprived of offering prayers in Jamia Masjid consecutively for 18 Fridays,” he said.

In his address, Karra spelt the circumstances that forced him to part ways with the PDP last year. He denounced the PDP as “importer of the communal and anti-Muslim RSS and the BJP into Kashmir.”