Will Pakistan decide J&K statehood, asks CM Omar Abdullah

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: CM Omar Abdullah said Monday that making J&K statehood conditional on the end of militancy would effectively give Pakistan a say in its restoration, as the assembly passed a resolution for full statehood and set off a BJP walkout over its reference to a 2000 autonomy demand.Omar moved the resolution that calls on Union govt to restore full statehood. It refers to the 2000 assembly resolution accepting the state autonomy committee report and seeking greater autonomy, and a 2024 resolution seeking special status and constitutional guarantees for J&K.National Conference, Congress, PDP, Peoples Conference, Awami Ithaad Party and CPM supported it.BJP’s Sunil Sharma called the resolution “anti-constitutional” and “anti-secular”, saying its reference to the 2000 autonomy resolution amounted to seeking restoration of J&K’s “pre-1953 position”.

BJP said it supports restoration of statehood but opposes the resolution in its current form. Its legislators entered the well, shouted “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and moved a motion against speaker Abdul Rahim Rather.Omar criticised BJP’s opinion that statehood could be restored only after militancy ends. “Then the decision regarding restoration of the statehood will not be taken directly in New Delhi but it will be taken in Islamabad,” he said, adding if Pakistan is blamed for militancy, making restoration conditional on guns falling silent effectively gives Islamabad a say in when J&K gets statehood.

“We are not begging,” Omar said. “We rightfully demand that we have the right to a statehood.”Omar said the resolution was rooted in a promise of restoring statehood and had nothing to do with Article 370, 35A or autonomy. J&K lost statehood and was bifurcated into two Union territories, including Ladakh, in Aug 2019 when Centre also scrapped its special constitutional status.

The CM said he had deliberately kept Article 370, 35A and special status out of the resolution to prevent BJP from using them to disrupt proceedings.

He also criticised NC members who had moved amendments seeking references to Article 370 and 35A, saying they had provided BJP “an excuse to oppose it”.Omar said Supreme Court had directed Centre to restore statehood “at the earliest” after assembly elections in 2024 and questioned whether two years could qualify as “as soon as possible”. Omar said there was still no clarity on when Centre considered the “right time” for restoration.Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary rejected BJP’s position that J&K’s sensitive location justified its UT status, saying nearly half of India’s states share borders with neighbouring countries.