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BJP, Farooq conspiring on autonomy issue: Mulayam

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Former defence minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said in Lucknow on Monday that any attempt to grant autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir would mean a step towards India's balkanisation.

Describing the move as 'totally against the larger national interest', he told reporters, "I have reason to believe that this whole idea has been mooted following an understanding between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Union Home Minister L K Advani and J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah."

"While Abdullah would use it to re-establish his lost credibility and support among the Kashmiri masses, the Bharatiya Janata Party bigwigs would continue to get support of the National Conference as a quid pro quo."

The former defence minister felt that the National Democratic Alliance had no business to go ahead with any proposal that could be a potential threat to the unity and integrity of India. "Such an issue should be first discussed with all parties and also be debated in parliament," he demanded.

He warned, "it would set a dangerous trend of similar demands from other states, particularly Punjab and those in the north-east where insurgency was nearly as bad as in Kashmir."

Referring to the Akalis' promptness in seconding the autonomy proposal, he said, "this only reflected the ulterior designs they nurtured about Punjab."

He wondered why such divisive attempts were not nipped in the bud. He repeated his earlier prediction that 'if BJP came to power, it would not hesitate to divide the nation' and said that it was coming out to be true.

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