As the Omar Abdullah-led coalition government is set to assume power on Wednesday, the issue of the restoration of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir has become a talking point across the Union Territory (UT).
Common people are debating whether after losing the polls and the National Conference (NC)-led government in place in J&K, will the BJP leadership stick to its commitment to restoring statehood at the earliest.
CM-designate Omar Abdullah has said that in the first business, the NC-Congress coalition government would pass a resolution in the cabinet seeking restoration of statehood. There was no reason to disbelieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, who in their poll campaign had said that the BJP government would restore J&K’s statehood at the earliest after an elected government comes into power. “The top Central leaders did not say that the statehood will be restored only if the BJP government was formed in J&K”, he added.
He said, “Our immediate priority is to work with the government in Delhi to get statehood back for Jammu and Kashmir. In that respect, I believe that the prime minister is an honourable man. He has promised the people of Jammu and Kashmir that statehood will be restored.
RSS-BJP strategist Ram Madhav, who was election in-charge of the BJP in J&K, said during a recent interview that the Union government right from the PM and the home minister downwards have repeatedly said that the statehood would be granted at an appropriate time.
While ordering the holding of the assembly polls in J&K not later than September 2024, the Supreme Court also directed the Union government to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible.
J&K was downgraded and split into two separate UTs in 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated by the Centre.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambram said the first task before the new Jammu and Kashmir government should be to demand the restoration of statehood and the INDIA bloc parties should support it. In case the government does not agree, they should approach the court as the Central government had promised restoration of statehood before the Supreme Court.
NC President Dr. Farooq Abdullah said, “The statehood is already on the agenda and we are requesting its restoration so that the state can move forward.”
Ram Madhav said Parliament would take a final call on the timing and structure of granting statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. When asked about a time frame for it, he said, “You remember one thing. Jammu & Kashmir has travelled a lot of distance in the last five to 10 years. It gave up its terror-based identity, it is a very peaceful state in terms of separatism. Even Jamaat-e-Islami has joined the electoral process. That is a very big achievement. But those in power in the state should be reassuring the people in Delhi that they won’t bring those tendencies back into this region. Then full statehood is possible.”
Apni Party’s Vice-President Ghulam Hassan Mir asserted that statehood is a right of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre needs to restore all the rights, especially the status of J&K as a state.