“Our patience is such that we are still working like donkeys to achieve something for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Prime Minister Omar Abdullah said.
Reiterating the demand for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir — not including Ladakh — Prime Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday asked the Center not to treat its patience as a weakness. He called for a clear timetable.
He further said that the Central government should ask itself why, after spending more than a year and a half in power, the National Conference of Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling party was contemplating a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
At a party conference at his ancestral shrine in Hazratbal on the occasion of the 26th death anniversary of his grandmother Akbar Jehan, Omar Abdullah asked that if the Center was ready to talk to the people of Ladakh on issues including the demand for statehood, “why not the people of Jammu and Kashmir?”
The state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the region now known as UT Ladakh, was stripped of its state status as part of the Centre’s August 2019 decision to revoke its special status under Article 370. While Parliament approved the reorganization of the state in August 2019, the change came into legal force in October, when the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Accusing the BJP-led central government of controlling the governance of Jammu and Kashmir through the Lieutenant Governor, Omar Abdullah said: “If you have to harass people through Raj Bhavan, fire employees and operate bulldozers, why did you advance us?”
The Prime Minister said that his party’s success in the UT Lok Sabha elections had become a “punishment” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He said, “Why did you form the government if you would not allow it to work? What is the point? Then you should not have held the elections.”
Referring to his late grandmother, Abdullah said: “We must be patient, as you showed her, but patience is not the path to weakness.”
He also talked about how he chose to push for dialogue. He added: “I kept my political future and reputation at stake, and told the center that we want to secure our rights through dialogue and not violence, knowing that this decision could be very dangerous for me politically.”
“You have mocked our patience, our manners, and our silence. Do you want to light a fire here?” Abdullah asked.
“They should have told us at that time that you will come forward, but we will tie your hands behind your back. We will give you these officers who will not implement your decisions. We are still working like donkeys to achieve something for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Abdullah also asked the Center to determine the implications of the “appropriate time.”
“…When will the BJP come to power?”
“I ask them, ‘For God’s sake, how will we know when the right time has come? What do I and my colleagues have to do to get to that right time?’” He said.
He also wondered whether the right time would mean the BJP coming to power in the erstwhile state. He added: “Have the courage to say it publicly.”
Referring to voter participation in the parliamentary and assembly polls, the Prime Minister asked how many elections would need to be contested in the hope of eventually regaining the state.
“Now, you are saying that you want to conduct polls for local bodies and panchayats; we want that too,” he said, but added that the Jammu and Kashmir government would decide the right time to conduct polls for local bodies.
(with PTI inputs)
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