The National Conference will request Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain why he had attributed a quote from a satirical website to party leader Omar Abdullah, NDTV reported on Friday.
On Thursday, Modi had accused regional leaders of attempting to foment trouble in Kashmir the run-up to the revocation of its special constitutional status. The prime minister told Parliament that Abdullah had said the move would “bring a massive earthquake that will divide Kashmir from India”. Satirical website Faking News had attributed the quote to Abdullah in an article published years ago. The prime minister’s statement was also tweeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party from its official handle.
National Conference spokesperson Imran Dar told NDTV that the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had made no such comment. “Every statement of Omar Abdullah is in the public domain,” Dar added.
Party leader Hasnain Masoodi said the record should be corrected in Parliament. “We will urge the Speaker to request the prime minister to clarify on source of information,” he added. “And, if found to be incorrect, the remarks must be removed from proceedings.”
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has charged Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act. They have been in detention since the Centre hollowed out Article 370 of Constitution on August 5, and bifurcated the former state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Act, notified in 1978, allows detention without a trial for three to six months. It was introduced under former Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah to keep timber smugglers “out of circulation”.
The PSA was invoked to detain former Chief Minister and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on September 17. It was extended by three months in December.
On Friday, Rajya Sabha Chairperson Venkaiah Naidu had expunged a word from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech the day beffore during a discussion on the Motion of Thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address. The prime minister had accused the Opposition of spreading lies about the National Population Register. The word “jhooth” was expunged from parliamentary records.
A word from the speech of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was also expunged. Azad had used the word mislead while referring to the actions of the government.
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