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Centre summons Farooq Abdullah

Opposition party members in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly today described the autonomy committee report as a serious threat to national integrity, while ruling party members said the Centre was bound to fulfil its promise made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir at the time of accession.

The debate continued as Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah left Srinagar for New Delhi on an unscheduled visit this morning, reportedly following summons from the Centre.

Initiating the third day's debate on the autonomy bill in the assembly, Panthers Party member Haresh Dev Singh said the demand for autonomy was a great threat to the integrity of the country.

Describing it as the most controversial document, he said if accepted it would have serious consequences.

He said the report has not been able to specify how it could contain militancy and bring back normalcy in Kashmir once adopted.

He said that only the National Conference was demanding autonomy as the people of Jammu and Ladakh and most in Kashmir were against it, because they had more powers than other states.

National Conference members interrupted Dev several times when he said that during the Sheikh Abdullah regime and after the Sheikh Abdullah-Indira Gandhi accord in 1975, about a dozen laws passed by Parliament were made applicable to the state too.

''You call yourself an Indian. Then why are you demanding autonomy, instead of asking for a total merger with India?'' he asked and said most laws adopted by the state were in the best interest of the people of the state.

He said a committee set up by the late Sheikh Abdullah to review all central laws also recommended that they be retained.

When Dev said it was the Election Commission of India , which brought the National Conference back to power in 1996, National Conference members protested against the remark.

UNI

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