 Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 17: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 76 on Thursday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had a birthday wish of his own — the long-pending restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, a demand he says has so far been met with nothing but words.
Speaking to reporters in Amritsar, where he was on hand to inaugurate the newly renovated heritage building of the Jammu & Kashmir House on Court Road, Abdullah first extended his greetings to the Prime Minister before turning pointed on the statehood question. Asked what he expected from Modi on the occasion, the Chief Minister didn't hold back: "What can I say as to what he does… If nothing else, let him grant us statehood; what else could we want?"
Pressed further on the issue, Abdullah laid out the crux of his grievance — promises made, but never put in writing. "You all know what happened with us. We were told that statehood would be restored after the (J&K) elections. But nothing was given in writing; only verbal assurances were given," he said.
The Chief Minister reminded reporters of the three-step roadmap the Centre had laid out for Jammu and Kashmir — delimitation, followed by Assembly elections, and finally the restoration of statehood. Two of those three boxes, he pointed out, have already been ticked. "Even in Parliament and in the Supreme Court, this assurance was given. While we saw delimitation and elections in J&K, in which people participated, statehood has not been restored even till now," he said.
The demand traces back to August 5, 2019, when the Centre revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, stripping the erstwhile state of its special status and splitting it into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, with a legislative assembly of limited powers, and Ladakh, without one. In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Centre's move to abrogate the special status and carve out the two UTs, but directed the government to restore J&K's statehood at the earliest opportunity — a direction that, nearly two years on, still awaits fulfilment. |