\nHe said the Centre had repeatedly outlined a three-step roadmap for Jammu and Kashmir \u2014 delimitation, elections and statehood. The first two steps are done and his government will complete two years in office this October, Abdullah pointed out.
\nThe timeline, he stressed, has moved well beyond the \u201cearly\u201d restoration promised in Parliament and to the Supreme Court.
\n\u201cIs it because the BJP was not allowed to form a government here? Is that why the people of J&K are being punished?\u201d Abdullah asked.\u201cThey should have stood up and said that till the BJP\u2019s chief minister does not sit in Jammu and Kashmir, you will not get statehood. Then the people of J-K at least know what to expect. Then they can decide whether they want a BJP chief minister or not. This is still deceit,\u201d he said.
\nHe referred to statements by Leader of Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir Sunil Sharma\u2019s statements to buttress his point. Sharma had recently asked why statehood should be restored to Omar Abdullah and his government. In August 2019, the Centre abrogated Article 370 giving Jammu and Kashmir special status and bifurcated the then state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.The National Conference, he asserted, remains committed to its core ideology and he refuses to lie to the public about what is achievable with the current dispensation in New Delhi.
\n\u201cTalking to the current government of India about Article 370 is a waste of time; it is tantamount to befooling people,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cThose who are not ready to give you statehood, will they be ready to give you Article 370?\u201d In 2023, the Supreme Court said statehood should be restored \u201cat the earliest\u201d.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the problem with at the earliest. It\u2019s so vague,\u201d Abdullah said. Asked whether the state government would approach the Supreme Court for clarity, he was cautious. \u201cLet\u2019s see. Such things are also fraught with risk. I don\u2019t want to say too much because it then gets misinterpreted. Let\u2019s just say that all our options are on the table.\u201d Addressing critics, including a few within his own party, who claim his government has abandoned the push for Article 370, Abdullah said, \u201cLook, critics are a dime a dozen and they are a natural part of democracy. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everybody has an opinion about almost everything. So I have no problem with that. The fact is that we have not abandoned our core principles.\u201d In a dig at the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and detractors within his party, Abdullah said, \u201cNow I can understand some of these critics are masters at befooling people. It\u2019s all they have ever done
\n\u201cIn the case of some of them, their entire political career is founded on lies. I am not going to join them. I am not going to be the one to befool people that I am going to Delhi to get Article 370 for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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SRINAGAR, May 6: It is deeply unfair to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the promise of statehood is not being kept, says Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah while going on to ask if they are being punished for not electing a BJP chief minister. \u201cIf that is the case, the BJP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jammu-and-kashmir","category-national"],"gutentor_comment":0,"yoast_head":"\n