Does Congress want to jail Kashmiris: Omar Abdullah on Vande Mataram row

Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: Does Congress want more Kashmiris to be jailed?” J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah retorted on Thursday, a day after ally Congress criticised him for the rendition of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram at the inaugural ceremony of International Film Festival of Jammu & Kashmir (IFFJK) on Monday.“It is a statutory obligation. The entire stanza of national song Vande Mataram must be played across the country at the govt events,” the CM said, adding legal action could be taken against those who fail to stand for the full national song.

He accused Congress of politicising the issue. “They (Congress) should have stopped this (the law mandating full rendition of the national song) in Parliament. When Congress comes to power, and I pray the Congress comes to power as soon as possible, they can revoke this in Parliament.

Let them do it, we have no objection,” Omar told reporters.Congress MP K C Venugopal triggered the war of words on Wednesday, by asking National Conference to “honour the wisdom and judgement of our freedom fighters” and stand with INDIA bloc in singing only the first two stanzas of the national song.