Congress-National Conference coalition to sail through: Farooq Abdullah

Union minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today said there are no "strains" in the ruling NC-Congress alliance in Jammu and Kashmir and that it will sail through its full term and also ruled out his return to the state as chief minister.

Abdullah also trained his guns on the media in connection with the developments in J&K accusing it of being a "great promoter of speculation."

The 72-year-old National Conference leader, a three-time Chief Minister, said removal or repeal of the contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) could be done in a "minute" but every aspect has to be weighed before taking such a decision.

Abdullah also firmly backed his son and chief minister Omar and said "I don't think anybody can do better than Omar" in the present situation in the state.

"There is lot of speculation in every capital of the world. There is speculation and media is a great promoter of speculation. They run their channels on speculation. There is no credibility (of the speculation)," Abdullah  said in an interview to Karan Thapar on his Devil's Advocate show on CNN-IBN.

"There are no strains at all. None whatsoever," he said in reply to a question whether there were strains between the National Conference and Congress, and also made it clear that he was not going back to the state as chief minister.

While expressing hope that the All Party Delegation visiting J&K on Monday will be able to "come out" with something from the trip, Abdullah suggested he will not be unduly bothered if the team was not able to meet the separatists.

"For God's sake. What do separatists want? Are you trying to give Kashmir to Pakistan. Are you ready to hold referendum Are you getting them Azadi.

"We are part of this nation. You better drive that in your head and those people who think otherwise. Have you not seen trouble before? What are you talking about? is it a new thing," Abdullah asked.