NEW DELHI: Farooq Abdullah, National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister made an impassionate appeal in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. While urging the Centre not to consult protesting farmers, Farooq Abdullah said, “I am thankful that 4G services have been restored [in Jammu and Kashmir].”
The former J&K CM also congratulated Indian scientists and the SII for developing a vaccine against Covid-19. “It is essential to distribute these vaccines in India. Even now, very few people are getting vaccines. Efforts should be made to vaccinate the maximum number of people so that people can be protected from this disease,” he added.
NC leader Farooq Abdullah urged the central government to speak to protesting farmers and understand their problems. “We made the laws [farm laws]. If they [farmers] want that the laws be repealed, what you will lose if you talk to them?” he asked.
“Please find a solution. We are here to find a solution not to create obstacles,” Farooq Abdullah appealed to the Centre.
“A doctor never looks at a blood bottle and asks whether the blood is that of a Hindu or a Muslim. God has made us all the same. You go to a temple, I go to a mosque,” Farooq Abdullah said addressing the Treasury benches in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Farooq Abdullah asserted, “Ram belongs to the whole world. Ram belongs to all of us. The way Muslims have held on to the Quran, the Quran is not just ours.”
‘Farm laws not religious scripture’
Comparing the farm laws to scriptures, the NC leader said, “It is not a religious scripture that changes cannot be made. If they [farmers] want it to be repealed, why cannot you talk to them? I request that let u not stand on prestige. It is our nation. We belong to this nation, let us respect everybody in the nation.”
Accusing NDA MPs of questioning the stature of political visionaries such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Farooq Abdullah said, “I feel really bad when we see that we are pointing fingers at Jawaharlal, Sardar Patel, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other leaders. Tomorrow, you may not be in power. Will we talk about this PM then? This is not the Indian tradition. Respect the one who has gone.”
Abdullah alleges elected members being ‘purchased’
Farooq Abdullah went on to claim that not even one of the 50,000 jobs promised to the people of Jammu and Kashmir has been delivered. The tourism sector, industries and shopkeepers in J&K have suffered, he said adding that there is rampant poverty in the UT.
Referring to the recently-concluded District Development Council (DDC) polls, Farooq Abdullah said, “DDC election happened peacefully, now, elected members being purchased to force the members to vote for others. I would urge the law minister to bring some law to stop such activities.”
“My workers, ministers were killed because they held on to the tricolour,” Farooq Abdullah said while requesting the Centre to “embrace the people of Kashmir”. He went on to add, “If we want to make India, we must do it together.”
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