Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that our biggest priority is that Jammu and Kashmir should get the status of a state again. He said that if his demand is not met, he will approach the Supreme Court. In an exclusive conversation with India Today, Omar Abdullah said that initially the powers of the Chief Minister will be very limited compared to the period before 2019.
Omar said, “Initially the powers of the chief minister will be much more limited than we expected. We believe this will be a very temporary phase, as Jammu and Kashmir has to be restored as a state and full statehood. If we do not get this voluntarily, we will go to the Supreme Court.”
‘This is not that assembly…’
“We have got commitments from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister on the floor of the House in Parliament that Jammu and Kashmir will be given back its statehood. We have also got commitments from the Government of India and the Supreme Court. So as I said, this assembly is not the assembly we want, but the assembly we want will emerge from this assembly,” the National Conference leader said.
Omar Abdullah said that restoring Article 370 could be a long battle, but the demand for statehood could be met through a resolution by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. Abdullah further said, “I have said that the assembly should pass a resolution stating that we do not accept what was done to us on 5 August 2019 and the people were not a part of that decision.”
He said, “People who have been doing nothing since 2019 except telling the world that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are really happy with it (abrogation of Article 370), that life has become much better… at least we will reject it.”
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What did Omar say on terrorist attacks?
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be announced on October 8. This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir in a decade and also the first election after the abolition of Article 370 in 2019.
Omar Abdullah also spoke about the recent terror attacks in Jammu and said the new government will have a tough task ahead of it. “The kind of attacks you are seeing today in Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Reasi, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri are things that almost never happened,” he said.
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