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Onkar Singh in Srinagar
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah lashed out at Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal for claiming that Lord Ram belonged to Hindus alone.
Speaking at the National Conference convention where he passed on the presidentship of the party to his son Omar Abdullah, Dr Abdullah said that though he was a Muslim he still felt that Lord Ram belonged to him also.
"He does not belong to Singhal," Abdullah said. "I asked Singhal the other day if Lord Ram belonged to Hindus alone or he belongs to the whole world. I am devout Muslim but I feel Lord Ram belongs to me as much as he does to Singhal."
On the Indo-Pak standoff, he ridiculed the Centre for lacking guts.
"On one hand you bring your army to the borders and make threatening gestures and on the other hand you hold talks with Pakistan on water sharing. If I had been the defence minister I would have taught Pakistan a lesson. Some people say that I am looking for posts in the Centre and I want to become defence minister or external affairs minister. I want to tell you that even if they give me one I would not take it," he said.
He made an emotional appeal to his brother-in-law Gulam Shah to rejoin the family and the National Conference to help Omar Abdullah 'steer the party to victory'.
"I also ask the wife of Omar Abdullah to stand by him so that he could serve the people of Kashmir as Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah had done during his time, because my mother stood by him through thick and thin," he said an emotion choked voice.
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