Farooq draws ire as he bats for US, China mediation on Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir’s former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s suggestion to the Centre to seek third party intervention in Kashmir, from “friends like US and China”, has drawn sharp reactions from the political parties, including former ally Congress.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that Kashmir was India’s and India was Kashmir, stressing that the Kashmir unrest was an internal matter of the country. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “ruining” Kashmir and creating the present mess. The ruling People’s Democratic Party, which heads the coalition government in the state with the BJP, has welcomed Dr Abdullah’s statement, adding that the present policy of the Union government will not take Kashmir out of its “tragedies”.

However, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and the entire BJP leadership have condemned the statement of Farooq Abdullah and have demanded an apology for speaking the “language of the enemies of the country”.

Coming to the defence of his father, Omar Abdullah took to Twitter to say that his father’s the statement was being distorted by the people who did not want peace in the valley.

The controversy started when some news agencies quoted Farooq Abdullah as saying, for how long the Central Government will wait and avoid a dialogue with Kashmiris and with Pakistan. He said that even US President Donald Trump said that he wanted to settle the Kashmir problem. Abdullah was quoted as saying that even China offered to mediate on Kashmir between India and Pakistan.