With folded hands, Farooq raises J-K autonomy demand

With UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram listening, National Conference chief and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday asked the government to re-look into his proposal to grant autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.

Participating in the debate on the situation in Kashmir in the Lok Sabha, Abdullah made a strong pitch for autonomy, even appealing to Gandhi with folded hands. But neither Gandhi nor Chidambaram, who both sat in the front row — Abdullah was in the second — betrayed any emotion.

Abdullah took care not to embarrass the UPA government by making a direct demand for autonomy. He referred to a conversation he had with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after J&K Assembly had passed and sent the proposal to the Centre.

“Vajpayee told me it was not possible and that there was strong opposition but when I asked him if he had read it, he confessed he hadn’t. I pleaded with him to take a look at it and tell me the criticism in the proposal. I said I was willing to change anything which was objectionable,” Abdullah said, hinting that the UPA government should not adopt a similar approach.

He then went on to state his views on the country’s federal structure, saying that India will become a true federation only when states have their own powers and the Centre its own.

Playing to the gallery, Abdullah asked MPs to listen to the heartbeat of Kashmiris. “We want a solution within India. We don’t want to separate from India,” he said. He also appealed to media persons present in the House, forcing the chair, more than once, to ask him not to address anyone except the chair.