Don’t link J&K’s statehood to terror, Omar says day after SC’s Pahalgam reference

Omar Abdullah (File photo)

SRINAGAR: Chief minister Omar Abdullah decried Friday the practice of tying terror attacks to J&K’s political fate and asserted that Pakistan should not be allowed to influence it through terrorism, a day after Supreme Court observed that “incidents like Pahalgam” must be considered when deciding on statehood.“Will the killers of Pahalgam and their masters in the neighbouring country decide whether we will be a state?” Omar said in his Independence Day speech, his first since taking office last Oct and the first by a CM since Article 370’s abrogation and J&K’s conversion into a Union territory Aug 2019.Speaking at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium, Omar termed SC’s reference to Pahalgam “unfortunate” and asked: “What kind of justice is it? Every time we are close to statehood, they will do something to sabotage it. Is this fair? Why are we being punished for a crime in which we had no role?” He pointed out that “J&K’s residents from Kathua to Kupwara” had protested the Pahalgam massacre of April 22 in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were gunned down.The CM announced a signature campaign across all 90 constituencies of J&K in the next eight weeks with the aim of submitting signatures to Supreme Court in support of restoring statehood and to take “people’s voice directly to Delhi”. The top court on Thursday gave Centre eight weeks to respond to petitions seeking statehood. “Me and my colleagues will use these eight weeks to go to each constituency,” Omar said.In his speech steeped in lament, the CM cited reports in various quarters about an “announcement this Independence Day from Delhi” — an allusion to restoration of statehood. “I had hoped that in some corner of today’s (PM Narendra Modi’s) speech, there would be an announcement for J&K. We were told the papers are ready and it’s only a matter of time. But nothing happened.”Expressing his anguish further, Omar said he wished no one became the CM of a Union Territory with an assembly — like J&K –comparing the National Conference (NC) govt he leads to “a horse asked to run with two front legs tied”. “It has nothing except pain and anxieties. I have been chief minister of the state and now of the UT. The system of dual governance is not for success but for instilling defeat.”The Omar-led govt does not control key departments such as home, which is vested with Centre-appointed lieutenant-governor (LG) Manoj Sinha.Omar said he had never imagined before taking office that his cabinet’s decisions “could be altered or thrown into the dustbin”, remarks seen as an allusion to the LG’s overriding powers. “I am accountable to the assembly and assembly members to the people. But the bureaucracy in the present system is not answerable to the elected representatives.”