After being manhandled by the police and denied entry into the Martyrs’ Graveyard in Srinagar to pay tributes to Kashmiri protesters killed by Maharaja Hari Singh’s forces on July 13, 1931, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took on the BJP, calling the move to keep him and his ministerial colleagues away from the Martyrs’ Graveyard as a “foolish and short-sighted decision taken by idiots”.
Soon after the police roughed up Abdullah and some J&K ministers, a visibly angry Chief Minister strongly raised the demand for restoration of J&K’s statehood. Asked if the Centre could delay statehood, citing security concerns in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, Abdullah said, “The Pahalgam attack was not my failure. Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has taken ‘full responsibility’ for the intelligence failure that led to the attack. It was his failure that pushed us to the brink of war.”
Stating that Pahalgam would not stand in the way of statehood to J&K, Abdullah warned, “We have ways to make ourselves heard through democratic and peaceful means.” Though both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have said statehood will be restored, they have not specified a timeline.
Though the Chief Minister, after being sworn in last year, had said that he expected a cooperative approach between the Centre and his administration to achieve the objective of statehood, he is now pushing the issue more forcefully. “J&K was promised statehood, and what was promised should be given.”
The Chief Minister warned the BJP against underestimating Kashmiris, saying, “Today’s actions show the Centre does not care about the people of J&K. This is not about what happened to me or my colleagues. This is about the wider message that you are sending to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that their voice doesn’t matter.”
Claiming that the Central government was going out of its way to tell the people of J&K that they are “powerless”, Abdullah sounded a stern warning, “Don’t blame us for what happens. Had they just let us go quietly to offer prayers, this would not have become such an issue.”
Recalling the July 1931 protests, the CM said they were protesting against the British rule just like anyone else in the country at that time. “But you treat them as villains. You treat them differently because they are Muslims.”
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