Wrote to parties to push for bill on restoration of JK's statehood in Parliament: Omar Abdullah
The Centre abrogated Article 370, which accorded a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019, and divided it into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Srinagar, Aug 6 (PTI) Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said he has written to several parties with a sizeable presence in Parliament, seeking their support for the introduction of a bill for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood in the ongoing Monsoon session.
The CM's outreach comes amidst a growing demand for the return of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood. His push is a renewed effort to hold the Centre accountable for its commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
On July 29, Abdullah wrote a letter to the presidents of 42 political parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, urging them to press the Centre to bring a legislation in the Monsoon session to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction.
He wrote that downgrading a state to a union territory sets a 'profound and unsettling' precedent and is a 'constitutional red line' that 'must never be crossed'.
'The act of reducing Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a union territory in 2019 and the prolonged delay in restoring its status as a full state… has profound implications for the future of Indian polity,' the three-page letter stated.
The chief minister said the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory in August 2019 was presented as a 'temporary and transitional measure' and cited repeated public assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including a promise made in Kashmir earlier this year that he called 'Modi ka Wada'.
Abdullah also cited the stand of the Centre before the Supreme Court reaffirming its commitment to restore statehood at the earliest.
However, he said, the 'interpretation of terms like 'at the earliest' or 'as soon as possible' cannot stretch into years or decades'.
'The people of Jammu and Kashmir have already waited long enough — statehood must be restored now.' He called the 'prolonged and unprecedented disempowerment' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir 'unjust' and said it 'undermines the very rationale that was invoked to justify the changes of August 2019'.
'The restoration (of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir) must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction — one that prevents us from sliding down a dangerous and slippery slope where the statehood of our constituent states is no longer regarded as a foundational and sacred constitutional right but reduced instead to a discretionary favour bestowed at the will of the central government,' the letter said.
The chief minister highlighted the 'remarkable and enthusiastic participation' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in last year's assembly elections and said that they turned up in 'record numbers' and demonstrated an 'unshaken faith in our constitutional processes and democratic institutions'.
In a 'respectful acknowledgement' of this, his government's first act was to pass a unanimous resolution calling for the immediate restoration of statehood.
Abdullah said he personally handed over this resolution to PM Modi and was 'assured that statehood would be restored'.
However, 'more than nine months have passed and yet there is no clarity, timeline, or visible progress toward fulfilling that solemn assurance', he lamented.
The chief minister's letter warned that the 'temporary' status is beginning to 'appear more as a convenient alibi than a genuine commitment', serving as a 'proverbial fig leaf' for an 'indefensible act'.
He said that the six-year persistence of this status is 'far beyond what any reasonable interpretation of the word might allow' and that an arrangement 'meant to be transitional cannot be allowed to harden into permanence'.
Abdullah pointed to two recent events as 'extraordinary opportunities to heal historical wounds and reinforce national unity' — the high voter turnout in the recent elections and the public condemnation of terrorism following the Pahalgam attack.
'To allow such moments to pass — unacknowledged or unreciprocated due to narrow partisan calculations, will, without doubt, be a monumental mistake,' the chief minister cautioned and quoted famous poet Muzaffar Razmi Kairanavi: 'Lamhon ne khata ki thi, sadiyon ne saza payi (Moments committed the mistake, centuries got the punishment)'. PTI SSB SKL DIV DIV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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