New Delhi, Nov 1 (HS): National Conference president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will remain part of India, asserting that the National Conference had shed blood for the country and would continue to work to strengthen it.

Addressing an INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, Abdullah said, “We have shed blood for this India. We did so in the past, we are doing so today and we will continue to do so tomorrow. We have to live in this country and strengthen it.”

He said everyone living in India, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Zoroastrian, is Indian and will remain Indian.

Abdullah said the Constitution of India was the Constitution framed by Dr B R Ambedkar and that everyone was equal under it. He said all citizens had an equal right to vote and that everyone must fight to protect that right so that no Indian was deprived of their right to vote.

Taking aim at the Election Commission over the electoral process and the deletion of names from voter lists, Abdullah said more than one crore Hindus had also been removed from the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh. “Are they also Pakistanis? How long will you keep raising this slogan?” he asked.

He said the time had come to remember that every person living in India is an Indian.

Abdullah urged people not to fear anyone and said they should fear only the Almighty, who is the master of all. He said those currently in power would eventually go and political power would change hands, but the real strength lay with the people.

“They will go, they will disappear, but the power lies with the people. Use that power and strengthen it,” he said.

He also urged those supporting the present government or political forces to reconsider their position, saying they were on the wrong path. If India was to be protected, he said, everyone must work together to take the country forward, strengthen it and contribute to its development.

Abdullah said India could not become strong if any of its states remained behind in development.

“If India is to be saved, everyone has to take India forward, everyone has to hold India together and work for its development. If any state is left behind in development, India cannot be strong,” he said.

Abdullah’s remarks came amid heightened political debate over the political direction of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as issues of peace, stability and separatism in the region.

A day earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, while addressing an event in Srinagar, had said there was no place for “conflict entrepreneurs” in Jammu and Kashmir. His remarks were seen as an indirect reference to Abdullah’s recent statements concerning Pakistan.

Sinha had said some elements were unable to accept the peace, stability and development coming to Jammu and Kashmir and warned that anyone attempting to push the Union Territory back towards separatism and terrorism would face such a severe punishment that “seven generations” would remember it.

At the conclusion of his Ramlila Maidan speech, Abdullah said in unequivocal terms: “Jammu and Kashmir was part of India before, is part of India today and will remain part of India tomorrow. They will not be able to take it away.”

Abdullah had earlier, while addressing a party workers’ gathering in Baramulla on October 24, referred to Pakistan and said it deserved credit for raising the Kashmir issue internationally, adding, “It is protecting us, otherwise their intentions are not good.”

The BJP had strongly objected to those remarks and described them as seditious, while the National Conference maintained that there was nothing seditious in Abdullah’s speech and that his remarks had been misrepresented.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Zahoor Hussain Bhat