Alliance with Cong need of the hour: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said his party’s alliance with the Congress was not a compulsion but the need of the hour for development of Jammu and Kashmir and restoration of statehood to the union territory.

The former chief minister also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Union territory was a slap on the faces of those who would brand mainstream leaders of Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistanis or Khalistanis.