Omar pitches for statehood on I-Day, says present mode of governance ‘built for failure’

In his first Independence Day speech after getting elected last year, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced a signature campaign to seek statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, while emphasising that the UT’s present mode of governance was built “not for success” but “for failure”.

Omar, who unfurled the national flag at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, said Pahalgam’s terrorist attack was being used to “deny the statehood” to J&K.

Talking about the hopes of statehood restoration, the CM talked about how his friends and relatives “had been telling him again and again that something would change this year”.

“...On August 15, there will be a big announcement from Delhi for Jammu and Kashmir…I was even told that the papers were being prepared. Now, it is just a matter of time. You wait. It is done. We waited. It did not happen,” he said.

“I am still not ready to give up…but the reality is that the hope I had a few days ago, perhaps that hope is not there today,” he said.

Omar has been vocal about the statehood restoration of late, also expressed regret over the Supreme Court’s reference of Pahalgam attack with statehood restoration.

“My first question is if Jammu and Kashmir becomes a state again will our government not decide that? Won’t our Supreme Court decide that? Will Pahalgam’s killers or the powers behind the attack decide when Jammu and Kashmir will become a state?” he asked.

“We are being punished for a crime that we are not involved in,” said the CM.

Comparing his speech during the statehood times, Omar said he would say that “every year there is a decrease in militancy attacks”.

“Today, we are told that the elected government cannot be trusted to handle the situation. When did we show that we are not worthy of this trust? Just trust us once. We have not failed even before this,” he said.

Talking about the statehood signature campaign, Omar said the time has come to “leave the offices”.

“Now, we will have to raise our voice to those doors where our decisions are being made. The Supreme Court has said that within eight weeks. My colleagues and I will not sit idle. We will use these eight weeks to reach all 90 Assembly segments of J&K. We will try to reach every house, every village and get signatures from the people,” said Omar, adding that they would ask locals if they wanted “J&K to be a state or not”.

He said he doesn’t want anyone to be the CM of the UT. “I have repeatedly said that this system of governance, this method of governance, is not for success, it is for failure,” he said.

Omar said he didn’t know that the attempts “would be made to change decisions of the Cabinet without its nod.”

“I did not know that the decisions of the Cabinet would be stopped. They would be locked up somewhere and forgotten,” he said.

Comparing the functioning of government with a horse, whose front “legs are tied and is asked to run”, Omar said, “That horse will run and will be able to reach from here to there. But it will have to face a lot of difficulty to reach there. We are in the same situation,” he said, adding in the past months his government, however, did perform on various fronts.