Our Correspondent / New Delhi
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Thursday warned that some internal forces being promoted were a greater threat to India than China or Pakistan.
Without naming anyone, Dr Abdullah said, ‘You are talking of uniting the country, but its is you who are dividing the nation.’’ At this moment, any external source did not pose any threat to India, but it was rather those living inside the country that were more dangerous, Mr Abdullah said addressing the joint Opposition rally at ‘Sanjhi Virasat Bachao’(Save the composite culture) rally organized by opposition parties here.
‘’China can’t do anything to India, neither can Pakistan but it is the very people sitting inside the country that are destroying the nation that India is and dividing us all,’’ the National Conference leader said. The forces that were trying to divide the country can stay for sometime, but they will ultimately perish the British did from the country, Dr Abdullah said.
He said he was proud to call himself an Indian Muslim, as Muslims fought for the independence of the country. Coming to Kashmir, he said the Kashmiris were not fighting for Pakistan but for their rights within India. In 1947, Kashmir would have easily joined Pakistan, but its people chose to stay with India, he added.
Dr Abdullah’s remarks came amid heightening row over the retention of the Article 35 A which give the J&K Assembly power to define the state’s permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.