Key Highlights
‘Kashmiris prefer Chinese rule’
‘Kashmiris treated as second class citizens’
‘Kashmiris have not accepted abrogation of Article 370 by Centre’
National Conference President and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that Kashmiris do not feel like Indians, even claiming that they would rather have the Chinese in the area, according to The Wire.
In an interview with The Wire, Abdullah described the Kashmiris as ‘slaves’ who were being treated like second class citizens, saying that they have lost all trust in the Modi government.
”To be honest, I wonder whether they (Modi govt) will find somebody who will call himself an Indian today. What they did on 5th August last year, was the last nail in the coffin of India. And that’s what they did. You go and talk to anybody; they don’t want to be known as Indians,” the National Conference chief told Karan Thapar in the interview.
In a 44-minute interview to The Wire, Abdullah said it was complete rubbish for the Bharatiya Janata Party to claim that the people of Kashmir have accepted the August 2019 changes just because there have been no protests.
He said if the soldiers on every street and Section 144 were to be lifted, people will come out in their tens of lakhs. Abdullah told The Wire that the new domicile law was intended to flood the Valley with Hindus and create a Hindu majority. He said this has further embittered the Kashmiri people.
Abdullah was among the various Jammu and Kashmir leaders who were put into pre-emptive detention on August 5 last year after the Centre abrogated Article 370.
After the Centre set up the commission to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on the recent census in Jammu & Kashmir, Abdullah said the BJP wants Hindu majority to emerge in the Muslim majority region.
Farooq who was detained under Public Safety Act was released in March.
