A FALSE SENSE OF COMPLACENCY

In an exclusive interview on “Cover Story”, National Conference MP and a former High Court judge, Hasnain Masoodi told Newsx that three days prior to the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Abdullahs, and assured them that elections would take place in October that year. Apart from Farooq and Omar Abdullah, Masoodi was also part of the delegation and he claims that when the Abdullahs voiced their apprehensions about the continuing Governor’s

Rule in the state and wondered why the elections did not take place along with the Lok Sabha polls held in March that year the PM told them that the security forces were stretched during the Lok Sabha polls and so there was a logistics problem, after which came the Amarnath Yatra. However, the PM assured the Abdullahs that he planned to hold the elections sometimes in October. Having heard rumours to the contrary, Hasnaini reveals that the Abdullahs went back satisfied and even met the Governor on 4 August—who assured them of the same. And the next day, Article 370 was abrogated and the Abdullahs along with other leaders were detained. Interestingly though, Farooq Abdullah has recently been released from preventive custody, but he is yet to break his silence on Article 370 and the current political situation in the valley. One reason could be that he doesn’t want to jeopardise his son’s case for release for there is no knowing what the government might object to.