Farooq Abdullah dispels speculations, says ‘haven’t met anyone in Delhi’

Arun Joshi

Jammu, July 25

National Conference president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Saturday dispelled all speculations that he was talking to Delhi, saying “I haven’t met anyone”, and that his visit was personal.

A three-day visit of Farooq Abdullah to Delhi sparked off a whirlpool of speculations that he might have met some leaders to address the issue of the political vacuum in Jammu and Kashmir.

These speculations were connected to the political suggestion of Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari at a press conference in Jammu on Friday that J&K’s statehood should be restored and elections be held without delimitation.

These dots further fuelled the speculation when senior Congress leader and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad met the Prime Minister yesterday.

On being asked about all these speculations on phone, Farooq Abdullah told The Tribune, “I haven’t met anyone (in Delhi)”, and emphatically added: “I don’t want to meet any one”, suggesting that he had no communication with anyone in the establishment in Delhi.

Farooq Abdullah, who was released after more than seven-month detention under PSA since August 5 when the special status of J&K was done away with and the state split into two union territories, has reiterated that the state and its special status should be restored forthwith.

He had made these statements in public to show to the party cadre and the people of Kashmir, “deeply attached to the state and the special status” that neither he, nor his party, is going to make any compromise on this sensitive issue.

National Conference is regarded as an architect of Article 370 after Maharaja Hari Singh acceded the state to India in October 1947.

In many political circles, it is believed that Farooq can help resolve the issues because of his political stature at the national level and experience in politics of decades.

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