Farooq Abdullah sings bhajan at Zee India Conclave, gets emotional

NEW DELHI: This was an unprecedented moment on Indian telly. Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah not only got emotional while speaking at Zee India Conclave to a live audience, he also sang a bhajan or Hindu religious song on Ram and Shyam. 

After repeated requests by Zee News anchor Rubika Liyaquat, Abdullah sang a few verses from a bhajan. “Despite being a Muslim, I am very attached to Ram,” he said. Here's the song:

#ZeeIndiaConclave: 'रामभक्त' फ़ारूक़ अब्दुल्ला@RubikaLiyaquat pic.twitter.com/IQjgQ9tWIb — Zee News (@ZeeNews) March 17, 2018

Towards the end of the interview, Abdullah got emotional while asking people to give up hatred. "Agar desh banana hai to nafrat ko dafan karo (If you want to built a country, bury the hatred)," he said. 

Abdullah spoke on a range of issues at the conclave. He once again asserted that India is not going to be able to retrieve Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and that Pakistan is not going to be able to snatch any more territory from India. He said eventually, the Kashmir issue would be settled with the Line of Control (LoC) as the border between the South Asian neighbours.

Later, responding to a question on what is the bigger threat – Pakistan or anti-nationalism – Abdullah said, “Both Pakistan and anti-nationalism are threats. But the biggest threat is the internal threat. Doesn't matter which country - America, China and Russia - the internal threat needs to be taken care of.”

Responding to another a question on whether he thought the Kashmir issue could ever be resolved. "It will be resolved. It will certainly be resolved. But you have to first acknowledge that a part of Kashmir is with Pakistan. And you have to acknowledge that you are not going to able to take it back. And Pakistan has not acknowledge there is no way they are going to take any more of the land. The path to resolution lies beyond this," he said.