Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday fired fresh salvos at BJP and accused the party for failing to honour its promise to restore statehood in Jammu and Kashmir.
“An hour’s drive from here...at Katra, the PM himself had promised statehood to us. Whenever we ask when J&K would get its statehood back, we are told that it will happen at an appropriate time. But no one tells us when that appropriate time will come or how it will be decided,” Omar said during the party’s “Delhi Chalo – We Want Our Statehood” rally here.
The rally comes few days ahead of National Conference (NC’s) planned Jantar Mantar protest to be held on July 20—first day of Parliament’s monsoon session—to demand statehood.
“When the Prime Minister himself had stated that restoration of statehood was his promise then there should be some action on it,” he added.
The BJP has been testing our patience and has taken our silence as our weakness, he added.
Calling the restoration a legitimate right of J&K people, Omar said a promise was made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir over one and a half year ago, which should be fulfilled now. “BJP didn’t promise statehood to NC alone but also to all other political parties that contested the 2024 assembly elections,” he added.
The CM further targeted the saffron party for attacking National Conference for no logical reason. “The BJP leaders are quick in taking up promises made by the NC but they have completely forgotten about their own.They never get tired of recalling our promises, whether inside the assembly or outside. Their leaders remember our promises very well, but they fail to remember their own promises,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The CM further targeted the saffron party for attacking National Conference for no logical reason. “The BJP leaders are quick in taking up promises made by the NC but they have completely forgotten about their own.They never get tired of recalling our promises, whether inside the assembly or outside. Their leaders remember our promises very well, but they fail to remember their own promises,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}They don’t remember the promises they made themselves, he added.
Dismissing BJP’s claim that it was not conspiring against the NC, Omar alleged that the party has a record of weakening political parties. He accused the BJP of engineering defections in several political parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
“BJP is a backdoor party. BJP breaks the ruling parties in states where they fail to secure a majority by exploiting their internal conflicts as a backdoor to enter the state. First, it did delimitation in a bid to get more seats. You (BJP) have broken so many parties. See Maharashtra, see West Bengal, see Punjab. BJP is a ‘backdoor’ party. Where they can’t get power through the front door, they try to get through the back door,” he said.