Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Sept 24: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that an impression was developing in the Union Territory that its statehood will not be restored as the BJP could not win assembly elections last year.
He said BJP was the only party that opposed statehood restoration.
“Sometimes it looks like people of Jammu and Kashmir will not get statehood because the BJP lost the elections. This is an injustice because nowhere was it said that statehood will be restored only if the BJP wins,” Abdullah told media outside his private office here.
“If there is opposition to the restoration of statehood, it is coming only from the BJP,” he said.
Abdullah said the biggest challenge before his 11-month-old government is that Jammu and Kashmir is not a state.
“The way the people were promised and the Supreme Court was informed, we expected it to be a three-step process: first delimitation, then elections, followed by restoration of statehood,” the chief minister said.
“The delimitation happened, elections were conducted and people enthusiastically participated in the polls. It was bad luck for the BJP that they did not win the polls, but people cannot be punished for that,” he said.
On tourism in Kashmir, Abdullah said the stakeholders are not happy “We made efforts for revival of tourism in the Valley. But tourists did not come in numbers like we expected. But we will continue our efforts,” he said.
Asked about the controversy surrounding the ‘I love Muhammad’ campaign, Abdullah said only a “mentally sick person” can make a case out of writing these words.
“Who can have a problem with these three words? I fail to understand how it can become a basis for arrest,” he asserted.
“I would like the courts to set it right at the earliest. How is it illegal to write I love Muhammad?” he asked.
Abdullah said even if the campaign were linked to Muslims, the act of writing ‘I Love Muhammad’ cannot be illegal.
“Don’t people of other religions praise their holy persons and leaders? When you travel outside Kashmir, there is hardly a vehicle that does not have a picture of a deity. If that is not illegal, how does this become illegal?” he asked. |
