Omar Abdullah slams Ram Madhav for Pak comment, asks his BJP govt to investigate

After the PDP, Congress and NC attempt to form a government fell through, NC chief Omar Abdullah was at his combative, witty and gratuitous best.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday, November 22, objected to BJP leader Ram Madhav suggesting in a tweet that he had joined hand with Mehbooba Mufti to form a government on "instructions from across the border".

BJP leader Ram Madhav had alleged that Omar Abdullah's NC and Mehbooba Mufti's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had formed alliance to stake claim to power on Wednesday on instructions from Pakistan. The BJP leader was justifying Governor Satya Pal Malik's decision to dissolve the Jammu and Kashmir assembly after two alliances staked claim to form government.

"PDP and NC boycotted local body polls last month because they had instructions from across the border. Probably they had fresh instructions from across the border to come together and form government. What they did prompted the governor to look into the whole issue," said Madhav.

In a tweet, Omar Abdullah dared the BJP leader to prove his allegation, saying agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), National Investigation Agency and Intelligence Bureau were at his disposal.

Ram Madhav's response was to clarify that he wasn't questioning Abdullah's patriotism and didn't mean to "offend" him. Abdullah replied that "misplaced attempts at humour won't work". Place the evidence, he said, calling it an "open challenge to you and your government".

On Wednesday night, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was dissolved amidst conflicting claims over government formation. Governor Satya Pal Malik, who is known to be a right-wing loyalist, announced the decision in a press communique.

However, amid the political development, the fax machine at the Raj Bhavan in Jammu emerged an important character.

As former CM Mufti decided to claim for government formation with a support of 56 MLAs, the PDP leader had trouble communicating her message to the Governor.

As Mufti was in Srinagar, and after the darbar move last month, the administration shifted to Jammu for the winter season, the PDP president decided to fax her claim to the Raj Bhavan, only to be left surprised as her fax was not received by the Raj Bhawan.

In the meanwhile, Sajad Lone, who was putting rebel PDP MLA besides his own party's two MLAs, and support from the BJP, also jumped in and pushed his claim to the government by sending the letter to the Governor's personal assistant over WhatsApp.

Twitterati were soon taking potshots at that fax machine amidst the political development in J&K. Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah couldn’t resist joining the league.

Here are some tweets compiled: