Resolution on special status opens, not shuts, doors: J&K CM Omar Abdullah

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said the National Conference resolution on the restoration of special status passed by the Assembly is historic and expands our options rather than confining them.

Abdullah spoke on the final day of the first 5-day assembly session in Srinagar, when opposition BJP members staged a walkout in protest of the NC resolution and several BJP members were escorted out of the house. The BJP members protested by holding a parallel assembly on the assembly complex's grounds, where all members spoke out against the ruling regime and the resolution voted by voice vote and show of hands earlier in the session. "Chaos disallows accountability of the treasury benches and they always like it and those who trigger the chaos are running away from their responsibility," Abdullah said.

The J&K chief minister underlined that the decisions made on August 5, 2019, were unilateral and that no one was consulted, and that the resolution to restore special status was draughted in this manner to ensure that the central government did not reject it instantly. "There is something in this resolution that the Prime Minister, Home Minister, and other senior politicians are still using to target us. "If this resolution was weak and a compromise, they would not have mentioned it," Abdullah stated.

Abdullah stated that this resolution is "historic" since it opens rather than closes doors. "We must assess the future in light of our prior experiences. We do not want to utilise words that will constrain us inside a circle or limit our possibilities. So we purposefully mentioned J&K's special status," remarked Abdullah.

The CM also indicated that he may have lost hope in the current BJP-led central government. "They (BJP) will not be around forever. The system will alter at some point, so why should we entrap ourselves in some circle? So we used the terms carefully and with complete understanding," said Abdullah, adding, "Maybe tomorrow someone else is sitting (in my chair) here, and it will be easy for them to follow this roadmap and continue the dialogue."

Omar said he demanded full statehood in a motion passed by his cabinet and forwarded the same to PM. "We want full statehood as promised by the PM. And my discussions in Delhi with the Prime Minister, the HM, and others were really successful," he remarked.

Mend Ways, or We'll Run Parallel House: BJP's Sharma

Meanwhile, Sunil Sharma, the opposition leader and senior BJP legislator from Kishtwar, has warned that if the NC-led government's behaviour continues, the BJP will not only operate a parallel assembly, but also a parallel administration. "Today is the darkest day of the J&K assembly...the assembly elected for resolution of people's problems is being exploited by the National Conference, through its speaker who ran the house undemocratically and unconstitutionally," he stated. He claimed that the NC's resolution exhibited a "separatist mindset" and undermined the assembly's sanctity.