Srinagar, Apr 18: Alleging that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti failed to protect the interests of the state as the Chief Minister, National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said ‘calling herself a Chowkidar now is a mockery of the term itself as she has failed to perform her duties’.
Addressing a public meet at Shangus, Mr Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of J&K, alleged that Ms Mehbooba failed to deliver on every promise she made during her election campaign in 2014.
‘“The disenchantment among the youth is a direct consequence of her failure to protect the interests of the state. Calling herself a Chowkidar now is a mockery of the term itself as she has failed to perform her duties as CM. We didn’t see her protect the interests of the state and its people then. Her claim of projecting herself as the messiah gets deflated by thousands of youth who continue to bear the scars both at physical as well as psychologically levels inflicted on them during her tenure,” he alleged.
Reiterating his commitment to do away Public Safety Act (PSA), Mr Abdullah said, “I made the undertaking of scrapping PSA in one of my public meets which was welcomed by people across the state. Unfortunately Mehbooba Ji and her party opposed it revealing the dual nature of their Kashmir centric policies.”
“I am committed to remove the law from J&K. Once voted to power with a strong mandate we will take no time to obliterate it from the papers. The move will provide respite to hundreds of families who are yearning to see their children.  Needless to say, it will go a long way in infusing a sense of security among our people,” he said.
Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Abdullah asked him to come forth with his achievements.
“Every vital sector of the country is narrating the grimy tale of failure. The self anointed chowkidar has failed on economic front; his much touted note ban wasn’t able to yield anticipated results. His undertaking on getting back the black money also turned out to be a damp squib. Moreover we also come to see how illicit consignments of money are being caught across the country, the scenario has debunked the claim of crackdown on dishonest sources of money in the country,” he said.
“We also saw him fail on the security front as well. The country saw unremitting attacks on its security installations in Nagrota, Sanjwa, Pulwama and Uri,” he said.
Referring to the plethora of miseries faced by Gujjar and Bakarwal community under the former BJP-PDP rule, Mr Abdullah said, “The indomitable Gujjar, Bakarwal community continued to be at the receiving end even after the former BJP-PDP government fell apart. We saw how Gujjars were intimidated by the minister of the former BJP-PDP government. However I assure you that if NC comes to power we will ensure equitable development of the community. We will invest in the socio-economic and community development projects of Tribal community with invigorated passion.”
Underscoring the need of giving safe spaces to the youth of state to pursue their vocation, he said, “Once in power we will revoke the SRO-202 job policy. We will create employment opportunities for the youth in government sector. We will help the youth of our state to set up their own enterprise,” adding, “There is much that we have to do in terms of infrastructure augmentation in our state, and once in power we will oxygenate every pivotal sector of our state.”
Cautioning the youth against election Boycott call, Mr Abdullah said, “We have seen how New Delhi supplants its cronies in the state in the wake of election boycott. This time we have to make sure that we come out and avail the opportunity to salvage our state from BJP-RSS and its cronies.”