NC vice president Omar Abdullah termed the effort by his party to get a restoration of Article 370 from the BJP, which had abolished it in the first place, 'foolish' but added that nothing could stop his party from keeping the issue alive and fighting for it. Mr Abdullah spoke this ahead of the alliance of NC and Congress emerging victorious in the last 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
"Our political stand will not change. We have never said that we will remain silent on Article 370 or that Article 370 is not an issue for us now. I have said this many times before the elections that hoping for the restoration of Article 370 from the people who snatched it will be foolish," he said. "But we will keep this issue alive. We will continue to talk on this and hope that tomorrow there will be a change of government in the country, there will be a new setup with whom we can discuss this and get something for J-K."
He had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver on his promise of restoring the statehood J&K lost in 2019 after Article 370 was abrogated, a call that came when the NC-Congress alliance made the restoration of statehood a central plank for the elections. "The Prime Minister is an honourable man," Mr. Abdullah said to NDTV, "and I hope he lives up to his word."
Referring to the promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament and various public rallies, the latter said the restoration of statehood would go ahead "without undue delay". He rejected the idea that statehood depended on the formation of the BJP government in J&K, terming it "irrelevant". "Nowhere has the BJP ever said that first there will be our government and then statehood. The Prime Minister never said that. People of J&K have spoken and I hope the Prime Minister will now be magnanimous and restore statehood at the earliest."
This is an outright rejection of the 2019 decision regarding Article 370. NC won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly by making a majority with its Congress ally. This outcome represents the strong stance of the people against BJP's policies, including in Kashmir, which voted overwhelmingly against BJP.".
Mr. Abdullah won the both Budgam and Ganderbal seats a major comeback from his losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Before a new government in J&K, Mr. Abdullah was lobbying for a "healthy working relationship" with New Delhi.
Mr. Abdullah, however, did flag an ominous sign on the strained relations between J&K and the present Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, appealing to the LG to work towards better ties with the new government.
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