On the National Conference government’s completion of one year in office on Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Omar Abdullah, said the only solution to all issues facing the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is the restoration of statehood.
Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfil his promise made to the people of the UT, Abdullah said he was hopeful that the Centre would restore statehood to J&K within his party’s first year in governance, but that did not happen.
“We were hopeful that the Centre would fulfil its promise to restore statehood (to J-K) in the first year of our government, but it has not happened,” he said, and reminded PM Modi’s government of fulfilling its promise “made to the people of the Union territory from the floor of Parliament and the Supreme Court”.
“Heading a government in a UT is a different experience,” Abdullah said at the NC headquarters, adding that his party will “not back down” from its efforts.
“We still believe that the solution to all the problems facing Jammu and Kashmir lies in the restoration of statehood,” the CM stated.
Abdullah said he is “making all out efforts to improve the lives of the people by speeding up developmental work”.
“We have made a start. Be it the political promises we made to the people to bring a resolution in the Assembly on the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, or to get a resolution approved in the Cabinet for the restoration of statehood – we did both things,” he said.
His government, he added, was certain that “it will not just last for six months or one year, but for a full five-year term”.
“Like I said in the Assembly, if you have to judge us on the basis of our manifesto, do it after the government completes its full five-year term because no government fulfils all its promises in six months or one year,” he said, when asked about the opposition parties’ demand to make the NC government’s one-year report card public.
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Abdullah was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16 last year after his party secured a landslide win in the assembly elections – the party’s first in about a decade.
However, there are claims by the opposition that most promises of Abdullah’s party remain unfulfilled.
In its manifesto ‘Dignity, Identity and Development,’ the party promised to strive for the full implementation of the Autonomy Resolution passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in 2000, and restore the status quo with respect to Articles 370 and 35A, and statehood to pre-August 5, 2019.
It also promised that in the interim period, it would endeavour to redraw the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and the Transaction of Business of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019.
It also said it will make efforts to modify, annul, and repeal post-August 5, 2019, laws that impact the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and protect the land and employment rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The party’s Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, Ruhullah Mehdi, conceded that the government had failed on the political front.
“Whatever needed to be done on the political front has not happened. There was a need to show intent, but I personally feel that has not been shown till now,” Mehdi said recently.
The chief minister often blames the division of power between the elected government and the Lt Governor for his government’s limitations.
The April 22 Pahalgam terror attack came as a major setback to the economy of Jammu and Kashmir, affecting tourism.
The India-Pakistan conflict that came in the wake of the attack in May brought more hardship to the locals, especially in the border areas, where they bore the most brunt of the shelling from across. Several died in the bombardment that came with Operation Sindoor.
As the government launched a campaign to bring tourists back to Kashmir, rains and flash floods racked the region even further, narrowing any possibility of revival of tourism before the onset of winter.
The Abdullah government faces yet more criticism for not deciding on the existing reservation policy, which has reduced the general category quota in government jobs and college admissions to 30 per cent.
A cabinet sub-committee was formed in December last year following student protests. While that subcommittee submitted its report four months ago, nothing substantial has come out of it yet.
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