Jammu: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said the country is passing through a “bad phase” due to politics of polarisation and hatred, and advised Muslims not to be disheartened as “this phase is bound to end soon”.
Addressing party functionaries and workers at Malikpur in Doda district on the third day of his week-long visit to the Chenab Valley, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said Muslims should be proud of being citizens of independent India.
The visit of the NC chief, who arrived in Kishtwar on Saturday, is aimed at engaging with the party’s grassroots workers and ensuring robust preparations for the upcoming assembly elections.
“We are going through a bad phase... I have never seen any prime minister from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh dividing the people on the basis of (their religion) Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. They always treated all as citizens of India and the true owners of the country,” Abdullah said.
“But the incumbent prime minister (Narendra Modi) says (in his election speeches) that Muslims are not citizens of the country but intruders who will be given a share of the properties of Hindus -- houses, animals and even mangalsutras -- if they are voted out. This is the bad phase that we are going through,” he said.
Muslims should not be disappointed because “we know that life and death are in the hands of Allah”, he said.
“You are the citizens of an independent country and not the workers of any government. The Almighty is seeing everything and they will not last long,” he added.
The former chief minister further said the “forced” delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir was done to create divisions among people.
“When I was the chief minister in 2000, I had passed an order to ensure that the delimitation takes place along with the rest of the
country in 2026. I was not aware at that time that they would come and use the exercise to divide us,” he said.