Srinagar: Projecting a good turnout in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections as a strategic victory over Pakistan is akin to converting the polls into some sort of a “plebiscite”, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today, disputing the remarks made by NSA Ajit Doval on the issue.
“I would beg to disagree with the NSA. I know they have their own way of looking at things. The problem is that when you take an election, such as an Assembly election, and convert it into a strategic victory over Pakistan, then you convert an Assembly election into some sort of plebiscite.
“And the moment you do that, you are creating problems for future polls,” Omar told reporters here.
He was asked about the National Security Advisor's reported statement, in which he had described the good turnout in the Assembly polls in the Valley “of great strategic importance”.
The Chief Minister said the Assembly elections were not about India and Pakistan or for resolution of Kashmir issue.
“This is not an election about India and Pakistan; it is not an election about the issue of Kashmir. It is simply an election about people of Jammu and Kashmir to elect their representatives into the Assembly and subsequently a state government,” he said.
Omar said any other interpretation of the Assembly polls is fraught with enormous risk and danger.“ ... this is exactly the sort of response the separatists want. They want you to project this election something other than an election for government because that is what bolsters their boycott campaign,” he added.
He said such assertions provide the separatists an opportunity to tell people that “this is why we don't want you to vote because your vote is interpreted very differently from those people who are coming and asking you to vote.
“With all due respect, I would like to see this election just for what it is—an election to vote in the members of the legislative assembly who will in turn choose a state government that will govern this state hopefully for six years,” he added.
