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Statehood imperative for restoring J&K’s special status: Omar
Abdullah said that they went to remind the Centre of their promise made to the people of J&K after revocation of erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 and its bifurcation into two union territories in 2019
Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that statehood was an imperative or basic need for restoring Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, stressing that Article 370 restoration is meaningless without statehood. He said that after the Delhi protest, the National Conference’s protest programmes seeking statehood will continue.
“We are seeking the base i.e statehood from this government. And Article 370 ( restoration) is meaningless without statehood,” Omar said at a press conference after he and party leaders’ returned from Delhi following a protest seeking restoration of J&K’s statehood.
Abdullah said that they went to remind the Centre of their promise made to the people of J&K after revocation of erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 and its bifurcation into two union territories in 2019. “We are steadfast on this that we will have to remind the Centre of its promise made to J&K and hope that they will fulfil their promise and grant statehood to J&K sooner or later,” he added.
Omar came down heavily on the opposition parties for not joining the protest programme and ridiculing the ruling party. “We asked every political party to come and join us for a joint cause of J&K but they refused and instead ridiculed our efforts. I don’t mind the reaction of the central government to our protest but it’s unfortunate that those who call themselves as wishers of J&K, forget this thing during these events. They ask us to talk about Art 370 and special status but when did we stop talking about that,” he said.
He asked what will be the meaning of special status in a UT set up which has no powers to negotiate.
‘Let me ask them what is the meaning of Article 370 or 371 without statehood. Whatever the special status of J & K, whether in the form of Art 370 or any other form, the motive is how power will be shared between J&K and the centre. And power distribution doesn’t happen between the centre and a Union Territory. A UT’s powers are either with the centre or with Lok Bhawan,” he said.
“What power sharing are you talking about under special status when there is no state list? In any special status, the clash is on the powers of state list, central list and concurrent list,” he stressed.
“They won’t grant Article 370 back to us but the day we will club statehood and Article 370 together in a protest, they will get a pretext to deny statehood as well,” he said.
He said that the restrictions imposed to contain Cockroach Janata Party’s Parliament march affected the NC’s protest programme and also stopped many other parties from joining.
However he said that the protest programme made its impact. “We went there and made our presence felt and we have been noticed and are being talked about,” he said.
Earlier, NC had sent invitations to 54 leaders, including national leaders and heads of different political parties of J&K.
However, except Congress, all the other local parties, including opposition Peoples Democratic Party, People’s Conference and Apni Party decided to skip the NC’s protest programme.
Postponing wouldn’t have been feasible
Omar said that postponing the protest programme would have not been feasible. “As far as the timing of this protest is concerned, there is no perfect timing. The CJP was not even on the ground at Jantar Mantar when we announced our protest programme. If we had postponed, many among you had said that we ran away from the battlefield,” he said.
Omar alleged that some people don’t want to annoy the BJP and the central government but keep tweeting one after another sitting in their homes.
He said the protest programmes of his party will continue for statehood restoration.
“This is just the beginning, not the end. This process will continue. What will be its new form or method will be decided at the party level under the leadership of Farooq Abdullah. There will be no slow down in this fight,” he said.
BJP calls Omar’s protest a flop show
BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur lashed out at NC saying the party’s much-hyped Jantar Mantar protest has turned out to be a complete flop show. “Not a single major political party came forward to endorse or trust Omar Abdullah’s claims on the restoration of statehood. This exposes the NC’s political isolation at the national level,” he said.
“Today’s press conference has further exposed the reality. CM has himself admitted that Articles 370 and 35A are not going to return, vindicating what the BJP has consistently maintained all along,” Thakur added.
