Jammu: Cautioning people against conspiracies to take away the special status of the state, ruling National Conference (NC) on Thursday exhorted them to preserve party founder Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah`s idea of secular and democratic Jammu and Kashmir.
NC Provincial President Devender Singh Rana took the BJP head on for its "sinister machinations" with regard to Article 370, and said it was a deliberate attempt to vitiate the political atmosphere ahead of 2014 elections.
He was reacting to the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi`s call for a debate on Article 370 and whether it has benefited the people of the state.
"The enemies of the people of Jammu and Kashmir within and outside have joined hands to inflict scars on the state`s uniqueness, its glorious traditions and its great ethos for furthering their political ends," Rana said, during a meeting to pay tributes to Abdullah on his 108th birth anniversary at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here.
He decried the political immaturity of Modi describing Jammu and Kashmir as a beggar state and said, "It is an affront to the people of this state, who love their self-esteem more than their lives."
On central assistance to Jammu and Kashmir, he said this was a bonafide right of every state and "not a benevolence extended to us only". "Doesn`t Modi`s Gujarat receive funds allocated by Planning Commission?" he asked and advised BJP leadership not to stoop so low in pursuit of power.
He said Abdullah had laid such an edifice and the nature had bestowed valuable hydel resources to the state that it could become India`s most prosperous and self-reliant state.
Rana asked party workers to help Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to bring peace and prosperity to the state.
Remembering Sheikh Abdullah, Minister of Planning, Ajay Sadhotra asked the party cadre to gear up for the big exercise and to ensure that NC maintained its political supremacy.
"The biggest tribute to Sheikh would be to steer National Conference to a big success, as it is the only party that stands guarantee to progress and inclusive development of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh," he said.
