Omar writes to national parties to push for Bill on restoration of J&K’s statehood

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said he has written to national parties with a sizeable presence in Parliament, seeking their support for the introduction of a bill for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood in the ongoing Monsoon session.

“I have written a letter to all those parties who have a good number of MPs in Parliament and requested them to help us on the promise made to Jammu and Kashmir on statehood and raise the issue in Parliament so that a bill is brought in this session itself and Jammu and Kashmir gets its statehood back,” Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar today.

Omar said this is not a matter of an individual, a party or a government, “it is about the promise made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“The promise was made in public gatherings, in the Supreme Court and Parliament. Now we want the promise to be fulfilled,” he said.

On the Supreme Court likely to hear a plea for the restoration of statehood on August 8, Abdullah said it is a good development. “It is a good thing and I hope the Supreme Court keeps in mind is that when they gave a judgement on the August 5 case (in December 2023), they had said that the statehood should be restored as soon as possible.”

“Now, many years have passed but we have not got it yet,” he said. He said had the SC not set a deadline for conducting assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, “perhaps I would not have been talking to you as the chief minister today”.

“The elections were held because the SC had set a deadline and the elections were held in that time frame. We want that much time has passed now and if it (restoration of statehood) does not come through the government, then it should come through the court,” he said.

In recent times, political parties in J&K, barring the BJP, have been demanding that statehood be restored soon.

On the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 on Tuesday, major political parties also demanded the restoration of statehood, asserting that “democracy should be visible in Kashmir like in the rest of the country”.

It was on August 5, 2019, that the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked, and the region was bifurcated into two Union Territories — J&K and Ladakh.