Next elections in J&K will be fought for identity: Omar

Srinagar:  Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) vice president, Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the next assembly elections in the union territory will be fought for identity.
Addressing the National Conference workers in Doru area of Anantnag district on Tuesday, Abdullah said the elections will not be fought for roads, electricity and water.
“Elections are generally contested for development but this time, elections will be fought for identity so that land, jobs and other rights are there for locals only,” Omar said.
He also said that now the government plans to give unique identity card to every household but wondered why this was needed when they already have Aadhaar, PAN and other identities.
“This family ID is nowhere in India which is another attack on our identity and by creating these numbers government is trying that Jammu and Kashmir residents are known by numbers not by names,” he alleged.
Omar said his father Farooq Abdullah would join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Lakhanpur on the Yatra’s entry point into Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that the National Conference government will repeal the Public Safety Act (PSA) on the very first day if voted to power during the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
It must be mentioned that PSA was enacted during the government led by Omar’s grandfather, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.
The act became controversial because it was originally enacted to deal with the menace of timber smuggling and Bob Khan, a timber smuggler from Ganderbal district was the first PSA detainee in Jammu and Kashmir.
Over the years, PSA became an easy weapon in the hands of politicians in power to be used against their rivals. Under the harsh act, a person can be detained for 2 years without any sentence from a judicial court.