Jammu: Lashing out at former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah for accusing the BJP of bringing about demographic changes in the state, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday said the statement has potential to aggravate the unrest in the Valley.
“The statement of former chief minister has the potential to aggravate the unrest in the Valley,” President KP Sabha, K. K. Khosa said.
“BJP’s basic agenda is to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution and change the demography of the Muslim-majority state,” Abdullah had claimed on Aug 19.
Khosa said that at a time when Kashmir was facing unrest, senior leaders like Farooq Abdullah should have tried to “douse the fire rather than further fuelling it.”
“We all know that Article 370 cannot be scrapped from the Constitution of India unless the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly also ratifies it,” he said.
He said that while PDP, which was part of the government, was committed to strengthening Article 370, the statement by NC leadership shows that it was not keen to see normalcy back in the Valley.
Khosa said that in the past 27 years, the National Conference “never made any worthwhile efforts” to ensure the return of the Kashmirir Pandit community to the Valley except playing politics over it.
“Even today NC has not spoken about the demographic change that took place in the Valley due to the ouster of the community,” he said.
PTI