Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Nov 5: Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah while showering praises on the former Prime Minister of India late Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tuesday said that had Vajpayee’s roadmap on J&K been followed in full, J&K would not have been where it is at present.
“What should I say about the late Vajpayee. He was a great visionary. Vajpayee was a towering personality who started the Lahore bus and went to Minar-e-Pakistan. He always tried to build friendly ties with Pakistan. He was the one who continuously stated that friends can be changed but not the neighbours,” Omar said while speaking on the obituary references of the 57 lawmakers who have passed away in the past ten years. He said that Vajpayee’s slogan of Jhamoriyat, Kashmiriyat and Insaniyat was full of vision. “Perhaps, he was the first and last leader who raised this slogan,” he said.
Omar said that it was the Vajpayee who opened roads to connect the people of divided parts of J&K. “The motive behind opening of roads was to connect people and the civil society so that a personal relationship is created,” the Chief Minister said.
He said that but unfortunately, the path and the road map shown by Vajpayee has been left mid-way and “instead of connecting people, distances are being created.” “If Vajpayee’s roadmap on J&K would have been implemented and followed inspirit, we would not have been where we are at present,” Omar said referring the BJP led government’s August 5, 2019 decision when it rolled back the Article 370 and sliced the erstwhile J&K State into two UTs– Ladakh and J&K.
The Chief Minister said that when the J&K Assembly passed the Autonomy resolution, the same was returned by the Vajpayee led cabinet. “But later Vajpayee realised the decision was taken in a haste. He appointed the then Law Minister to hold talks with the NC leadership on the same,” Omar said. “But the progress couldn’t not be made on the issue further. When Vajpayee passed away, things changed drastically.”
He paid rich tributes to Vajpayee. Omar also paid tributes to his former Advisor Devender Singh Rana stating that he wasn’t aware about the health condition of his friend. “If I am more pained over the death of any member that is Devender. He was a great friend with whom I have spent the prime time of my life. I never knew about his ailing health. If I would have been aware of his health, perhaps I would have tried to end the distances and indignation,” Omar said.
Omar also said that in the today’s obituary references there is a mention of lawmakers from Ladakh and Kargil and perhaps this is the last time when J&K Assembly is paying tributes to the members of Ladakh and Kargil as Ladakh is not part of J&K anymore.
