India Can Face China And Pakistan, But Threat Is From Within: Farooq Abdullah

India can face China and Pakistan but the threat is from within the country as somebody is determined to spoil everything by dividing the people, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said today.

The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, while addressing a gathering of opposition leaders hosted by rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav in New Delhi, recited poetry and couplets to target the BJP in a veiled manner but took no names.

"India can face China and Pakistan but unfortunately today the threat is from within, not from outside," he said. "Andar koi chor baitha hua hai jo hamara beda garak kar raha hai. Voh humaein bant raha hai (There is a thief inside who is determined to ruin us. He is dividing us)," Mr Abdullah added.

"Earlier, we fought against the British but today we have to fight with our own people," he added at the 'Sanjhi Virasat Bachao' (save our composite culture) programme.

Talking about Kashmiris, Mr Abdullah said some people were trying to question their nationality. "Who are they to ask us about our nationality? We Kashmiris chose India over Pakistan during partition because India guarantees equality. And I say it with pride that I am an Indian Muslim," said Mr Abdullah, who has also served as a union minister.

Expressing pain and grief over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "Voh hum se kehte hain hum vafadar nahin, par afsos ki baat hai voh dildaar nahin (they say we are not loyal, but sadly they are not large-hearted)."

Mr Abdullah said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will stop complaining the day they are treated with a large heart. "They are talking about unity but are they creating the atmosphere for it? They talk a lot but lack in action," he said in an apparent attack on the BJP.

His comments came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to Kashmiris in his Independence Day speech, saying issues cannot be addressed either by bullets or by abuses, but by embracing all Kashmiris.

Mr Abdullah alleged that last year an all-party delegation came to Kashmir to evaluate the situation there and also gave its report, but nothing had been done after that.