Srinagar, Aug 20:
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said the central government changing names of institutions named after Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah cannot erase them from history.
“They (government) cannot change history by changing names. Can they remove the names of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi from history? They removed chapters on Mughal rule from textbooks but how will they erase the Mughals from history?” Farooq Abdullah said.
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When my kids and your kids will visit the Taj Mahal, they will ask who built it? What will they say?” he asked.
Asked about the renaming of infrastructure projects named after NC founder and his father Sheikh Abdullah, the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar said, “Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah lives in the hearts of the people. They cannot remove him from there”.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has dropped ‘Sher’ — the popular name of Sheikh Abdullah — from the Kashmir International Convention Centre. In Delhi, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) has officially been renamed as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society with effect from August 14.
On Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement on China occupying Indian land in Ladakh, Farooq Abdullah, a former chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, said he knows the Chinese “are sitting on our land”.
“You ask this from Rahul Gandhi. Farooq Abdullah has not said anything like that. (But) I know they are sitting on our land. So far, 19 (rounds of) talks have taken place, when they will go back, I don’t know,” he added. (Agencies)