Honour Statehood promise: CM to Centre

Srinagar, Sep 13: Asserting that the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir should be empowered in accordance with the aspirations of the people, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that the dispensation led by him has not compromised on any issue. He urged the Centre to honour the promise of restoring J&K’s statehood made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament.
Addressing a news conference in Chennai, Omar, said that his regime has not compromised on anything. “Since the day my government has been elected, we have stood steadfast in our belief that statehood must be restored. We were the ones who passed a resolution in the assembly asking for the special status of Jammu and Kashmir to be restored. We are the last people who will compromise on a mandate that has been given to us by the people,” he said.
He further stated that “the law & order and policing, these are not part of the elected government’s responsibilities and I think it is unfortunate. Jammu and Kashmir has been promised full statehood by the Prime Minister, by the Home Minister, by representatives of the Government of India when this matter was argued before the Supreme Court. So there is no reason why this promise shouldn’t be kept. Again, this is something that should have already happened. I fail to understand why it hasn’t been done, but we continue to push and believe that this promise must be kept and the elected government must be empowered the way the people want it to be.”
Replying to a query on measures taken post Operation Sindoor for the safety of people, Chief Minister Omar said, “We did a comprehensive security audit of all our tourist destinations. Some of them are even at this moment not open for tourism activity but most of the places have reopened and we are taking all the precautions that are necessary.”
About the detention of a legislator from Doda, Mehraj Malik under Public Safety Act (PSA), the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said, “Whatever the complaints might have been there about the conduct of the MLA, the law that has used to detain him is excessive use of force against an elected representative”.
“He should never have been arrested under this law. The sooner he is released, by all means, if you have a complaint about his conduct, take it up with the Speaker of the Assembly. There are other ways to do it. But detaining him under Public Safety Act, where he is not eligible for bail for at least six months is definitely an excessive use of force,” he said.
The Chief Minister rejected the claims of parting ways with the INDIA bloc, saying that there is no gap between the National Conference and the India bloc. “We continue to remain a part of the India bloc. The Congress Party is part of the alliance in Jammu and Kashmir government. Though for their own reasons they are not participating in the government at the moment and have said that they will join the government once statehood is restored to Jammu and Kashmir. But, otherwise we are very much a part of the India bloc.”
About PM Modi’s visit to Manipur, he said it is a good thing. “There has been a lot of commentary about the fact that Prime Minister Modi has avoided travelling to that part of the country and particularly after the violence that broke out in 2023. So, as we say, better late than never. We hope that peace and calm is restored and the differences between the two tribal communities are reduced to the point where people are able to live lives normally,” he said.
Reacting to a query on the India-Pakistan Cricket match tomorrow, Omar said, “I think our problem has always been with bilateral cricket. I don’t think we have ever had a problem with multilateral parts of large tournaments. If I understand correctly, this game is part of a tournament. It’s not part of a bilateral series between the two countries. If this is a start and things can move in a positive trajectory from there, nothing like it. Very often, sport becomes a victim to politics and nowhere is this more true than with cricket and the subcontinent. But you can’t wish away what happens.”
“J&K has been the direct victim of this. More than 30-35 years of trouble and this year we all saw what happened in Pahalgam. These are real concerns that we have and you can’t wish them away,” he said.
He said that his government has been trying to improve the connections between the South Indian states and Jammu & Kashmir. “We don’t get enough visitors from Chennai and from the rest of Tamil Nadu to Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, one of the challenges that my government has taken upon itself is to try and improve the links and the connections between the South Indian states and Jammu & Kashmir. We hope that in the months and years ahead, we will see more film shootings from this part of the country and more people coming to Jammu and Kashmir for their holidays,” he added.
Omar further stated that his relation with the Chief Minister MK Stalin is very good. “We have always been very grateful to the DMK for the support that they have extended to Jammu and Kashmir for the issues that matter to us. In fact, I was looking forward to meeting the Honourable Chief Minister, but I understand he’s not going to be in town. So that meeting this time was not possible. Hopefully, we will meet at a future visit,” he said.
About Bihar row, he said that obviously there are concerns with regard to this special dispensation that was created for Bihar. “I don’t have any direct connection with Bihar, but obviously one hears about the mood of the people and its left people in Bihar very dissatisfied with the conduct of the Election Commission. I am not sure the Election Commission wants to do something in the rest of the country that will add to the questions over its credibility. We have always taken pride in the independence and in the impartiality of our election commission. I think our Election Commission needs to hold true to those ideals,” he added. (KNO)