In an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire Farooq Abdullah, the President of the National Conference and a former three time chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said it was complete rubbish for the BJP to claim that the people of Kashmir have accepted the August 2019 changes just because there have been no protests. He said if the soldiers on every street and Section 144 were to be lifted people will come out in their tens of lakhs. Dr. Abdullah told The Wire that the new domicile law was intended to flood the Valley with hindus and create a hindu majority. He said this has further embittered the Kashmiri people.

Asked by The Wire how Kashmiris view the Central government and, in particular, Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Dr. Abdullah said they were deeply disillusioned. He said they had no trust in the Central government. The trust that once bound Kashmir to the rest of the country has completely snapped.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah revealed details of his meeting with the Prime Minister roughly 72 hours before August 5, 2019 when the constitutional changes in Kashmir were announced. He had met the Prime Minister seeking assurances about the continuation of Articles 370 and 35A. He asked the Prime Minister why there were so many troops in the Valley and whether this was because of any perceived military threat. Dr. Abdullah suggested the Prime Minister deliberately went out of his way to give him the impression the massive increase in troops was for security purposes. He said the Prime Minister did not say a word about Articles 370 and 35A. Consequently, Dr. Abdullah emerged from that meeting believing the two Articles were not in danger. When asked he agreed that the Prime Minister had mislead and deceived him.