‘BJP doesn’t listen on matters of J&K’

Srinagar: Former chief minister and president of opposition National conference (NC), Dr. Farooq Abdullah, on Monday said that the BJP was not ready to listen to reason on Jammu and Kashmir. “When it comes to Kashmir the present leadership of the BJP is so dogmatic in its approach that it is not ready to listen to reason,” he said while addressing party workers here.

He accused the PDP-BJP government in the State as well as the Central of being responsible for the “rapidly deteriorating” situation in J&K and said that deaths, communal polarization, chaos and anarchy have engulfed all the three regions of the State. “Under the present PDP-BJP government, people of the state are being pitted against one another along regional and religious lines. This is being done with a design to seek specific political dividends by the ruling regime,” he alleged.

He said that the BJP government at the Centre “instead of helping us get out of this vortex of violence is watching as a mute spectator”.  He added, “They seem to have given up on the State and have, so far, failed in bringing in a workable, practical and sensible way-out”.

Expressing serious concern over the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state, Mr. Abdullah said, “The continuous spree of killings has led to a situation where our youth are being pushed into an area of confrontation and later become the unfortunate victims. Being the head of the state and of the unified headquarters, chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti has failed completely to put a stop to civilian casualties”.

He also said that it was the time for both PDP and BJP “to do some introspection and listen to voices from the ground and do some course correction which I am afraid to say is too late.”