Srinagar, May 03 (KNS): Launching a sharp counter-offensive against National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday asserted that the so-called "mistrust" in Jammu and Kashmir was not a creation of the Centre but a carefully cultivated political weapon of the Abdullah family to shield decades of corruption and misgovernance.
Reacting to Abdullah’s recent remarks questioning Delhi’s credibility, BJP J&K spokesperson Danish Bhat told news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the political history of the NC is a "trail of ideological reversals," where public sentiment was mobilised for power and discarded at will. He recalled how the party first championed the Plebiscite Front only to later dismiss it as "Siyasi Awaragardi" (political hooliganism).
"Keeping Kashmir at a political distance from Delhi was a deliberate design. It enabled one family to pose as the sole intermediary while amassing wealth, cornering public assets, and evading accountability for decades," Bhat charged.
Pointing to the 1987 elections, Bhat alleged that the NC, in complicity with the then Congress leadership, engineered electoral manipulations that "severely damaged democratic credibility" and created the very conditions where terrorism took root, making ordinary Kashmiris pay the price in blood and violence.
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He further accused the NC of using cycles of unrest as a "political shield" to divert attention from governance deficits, unemployment, and administrative neglect. "Instead of introspection, the same leadership now invokes Pakistan and recycles the mistrust narrative to hide its present failures," he said.
Bhat stated that the NC’s unfulfilled poll promises—including 200 units of free electricity, one lakh jobs, 12 free LPG cylinders, and filling vacancies in 180 days—have led to growing public disillusionment.
In stark contrast, Bhat asserted that the Narendra Modi-led government has earned the people’s trust through tangible outcomes. "Direct rail connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar—an unfulfilled promise for decades—has been realised. Post-2019, J&K has witnessed sustained peace, record tourism, a sharp decline in terror incidents, and an end to hartals and street violence. Businesses and schools now function round the year."
He added: "Mistrust does exist today—but it is directed at the Abdullahs and the NC, not at Delhi. The people of J&K are now too aware to be misled by recycled narratives. Their trust lies in governance that delivers stability, development, and accountability." (KNS)