Srinagar, July 27 : A day after former chief minister Omar Abdullah demanded restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, the mainstream parties in the newly carved Union Territory on Monday evoked mixed response over the statement.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s J&K unit, while talking to the news agency— said that they distributed sweets in the office today as the former chief minister has accepted the abrogation of Article 370.
BJP’s General Secretary (organization), Ashok Koul said that they are happy and even distributed sweets in the office today as Omar Abdullah has finally accepted the integration of J&K with India by the way of abrogating Article 370 last year.
“Dr. Farooq Abdullah has also accepted it and we thank him for this,” he said, adding that restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir is also their (BJP) demand. “But, let militancy be wiped out first and the situation is brought under control, the Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir will be restored,” he added.
Former parliamentarian and senior Congress leader, Tariq Hameed Karra in a tweet said that timeline has already been fixed for initiating the process for restoration of Statehood as well as the restoration of high speed mobile data services in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, he said that raising the demand at this time is actually a rat race for taking the credit.
“A highly connected friend of mine told me that “The sudden outbursts and parotting by some political leaders from J&K for restoration of Statehood is a precursor to the already taken decision by chosen few in GOI for which the timeline fixed is 15th of August 2020 for initiating the process for restoration of Statehood and 5th August for restoring 4G. It is actually a rat race for taking the credit,” Karra tweeted.
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Vice president, G N Monga said that Congress has taken a lead by raising this demand, saying that the party’s senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has also met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and has demanded restoration of Statehood to J&K.
Apni Party’s senior leader, Ghulam Hassan Mir told that the stand of the recently floated party is very clear. “We have said that the decision taken by the Government of India on August 5 last year was against the wishes of the majority of the people in Jammu and Kashmir. The decision was literally a political Tsunami,” he said.
He added that the demand for restoration of Statehood is good and the Apni party has already raised this demand, but at the same time, the jobs and lands of people in J&K should be protected somehow by the government to address the concerns of the people.
“If we talk about the restoration of Article 370 as well, it also can be achieved by two different means. One of the ways is the Supreme Court (SC). If SC restores Article 370, we will welcome it. And the other way is that if the consensus between the national parties in the parliament is done to restore it then it will be possible,” he said, adding that the local parties can only raise their demands but it is not with them to achieve it on their own. “The local parties here earlier claimed to protect Article 370 and other things, but couldn’t deliver this on the ground as it is not under their domain,” he said—(KNO)
