The Hindu : National : I have made no mistakes on Kashmir

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 16, 2006

National

National

I have made no mistakes on Kashmir

"Is riding on a motorcycle with Shabana a mistake?"

Farooq Abdullah

Jammu: Rubbishing media reports about the statement of his son and National Conference chief, Omar Abdullah, in Pakistan that his father and grandfather made mistakes over Kashmir, former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said he had committed no mistakes at all.

"I have made no mistakes. The only thing I have done was riding on a motorcycle with cine star Shabana Azmi years ago," he told reporters here.

"Is riding on a motorcycle with Shabana a mistake?. If it is, then it is my mistake. Otherwise, no mistakes have been committed by me," Farooq said.

He said he was yet to meet Omar, adding, "once I am in Delhi, I will ask him [about his statement]."

On "mistakes" committed by his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Farooq said: "I don't know whether he had given a lift on motorcycle to anybody."

"Once I go to heaven, I will definitely ask him," he said in a lighter vein.

Demilitarisation

On his son's statement in Pakistan favouring demilitarisation, he said: "I don't know anything about this."

He, however, added: "Demilitarisation is not a State issue and is purely a matter between India and Pakistan. We are not party to it."

Asked about his fighting by-polls from one of the three vacant Assembly seats in Kashmir, Farooq said: "I will not contest any by-poll. I don't want to be a foreigner in the constituency."

On autonomy, he said any proposal that fulfilled aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir was acceptable to the National Conference. — PTI

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