National Conference leader and former Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir said that there was no question of joining hands with the Bhartiya Janta Party while maintaining that alliance with PDP will be decided only with time.
“Those spreading and starting this narrative that JKNC was going to join BJP for power are those who are in hands in glove with them. (BJP) First, they need to answer why are/ were they with they BJP enjoying the privileges and benefits from BJP,” Omar Abdullah told Quint during an interview, without naming anyone.
He further said that if JKNC had to, it would have aligned with Bhartiya Janta Party in 2018.
Commenting on the post abrogation status, he said there certainly was peace on the ground in Jammu Kashmir, however, the stats do not reflect the reality, he said. He said that no new capacity has been added to carry tourists.
“Tourism has always been receiving warm response from people, however, the ways of counting tourists has changed. Now Mata Vaishno Devi, Amarnath tourists are being counted as tourists too,” Omar Abdullah said.
He said that Jammu Kashmir administration must come clear on the increased 31 % revenue of the region. “Have they received this revenue from selling forests of Jammu Kashmir or by giving contracts to non-resident or by punishing poorer people by increasing their electricity charges,” he asked.
Commenting on the press freedom in Kashmir, he said, “No newspaper prints anything that is critical of government and what is printed is simply a reproduction of official press releases.”