If my family wanted to break India, there would have been no India, says Farooq

Srinagar: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Abdullahs and Muftis of trying to break the country, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday retorted back, saying if his family wanted to break India, "there would have been no India".

Addressing a poll rally in Kathua district on Sunday, the prime minister had slammed the Abdullahs and Muftis, saying the two families "ruined" three generations of Jammu and Kashmir and he will not allow them to "divide" India.

The NC leader said it was Modi who was trying to break the country, but he will not succeed. "Our party fights for the rights of all the people be it Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or Buddhists and we will continue to fight. Even if Modi tries his best, he will not be able to break India. I want to tell him from here today that you will break, but India will not. You accuse the Abdullahs of trying to break India, if we wanted to break India, there would have been no India then," he said.

Addressing a workers' rally near the city centre here, the former CM said Modi should remember that it was him (Abdullah) who held the country's flag when no one wanted to fight elections in the state in 1996. "Modi should remember that in 1996 when no was ready (for elections), I was the one who went ahead even as my colleagues said we should not contest...," he said.