Omar is NC choice for CM post, says Farooq

Arun Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 18

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah declared on Friday that his son Omar Abdullah will be the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2019 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as he himself would contest the Lok Sabha elections.

The former Chief Minister, who has been pitching for a single-party majority rule, said the last spell of the PDP-BJP coalition government was a “disaster” and has “pushed us back by years”.

In an interview, he said the Centre should recognise the space that the separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference enjoys in Kashmir and initiate talks, while making it “clear what it could do and can’t. The dos and don’ts should be made clear at the very outset”.

Farooq Abdullah, whose tryst with elections started in the 1977 campaign when his father Sheikh Abdullah was unwell, listed “communalism as the biggest challenge this time; it is much more dangerous than militancy”.

There should be no question of delaying the polls or holding the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls separately in the state, he said.

“The Governor’s administration or President’s rule with two-three advisers cannot do what the MLAs can. In fact, they are doing nothing,” he observed.

“And if any party is not ready for polls, that is their problem,” he said, referring to Governor Satya Pal Malik’s observation that barring the PDP all other parties were ready for simultaneous polls. The PDP, however, in its reaction claimed that it was ready for polls any time.

Arguing in favour of single-party rule in the state, Farooq Abdullah said, “When I was CM with a clear majority in 1996, I could do many things, but when Omar headed the coalition (2009-2014), he could not achieve that much, and Mehbooba Mufti’s alliance with BJP was a disaster and it has pushed us back by years. We cannot court such disaster again.”

He rebuffed the idea that the autonomy resolution could not be taken to its logical conclusion when he had absolute majority in 1996. “The autonomy resolution is alive. For us, former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s statement that anything short of ‘azadi’ is possible still holds relevance. We are not asking for ‘azadi’.”

If any clause of the autonomy resolution affects the solidarity of India, “we are ready to discuss that. It is not greater or minor autonomy, it is autonomy, and we are also promising regional autonomy to all the three regions”. Ruling out the possibility of any alliance ahead of polls, the NC leader said, “Nothing doing. We may have some understanding with BSP. That, too, we are considering.”

Regarding talks with the Hurriyat, Farooq said it should be realistic and come out with an “out of box solution” as former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf had declared that “plebiscite is not possible”.

On former IAS officer Shah Faesal, the NC chief refused to comment. “He is a young man with a brilliant mind, but he should be clear in his mind what he wants to do.” Farooq Abdullah also said the Army should be taken off internal security because that is bringing a bad name to it.

Engage Hurriyat, with clear riders

Centre should recognise the space that Hurriyat Conference enjoys and initiate talks, while making dos and don’ts clear at the very outset. Hurriyat too should be realistic. — Farooq Abdullah, NC President