Jahangeer Ganaie
Anantnag, Sep 30: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said he won’t make an compromise on the issue of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and that his government’s struggle would remain rooted in democratic values and non-violence.
Addressing a gathering in Anantnag, per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), CM Omar said he was prepared to protest but Ladakh situation in front of all and he would not accept “destruction, devastation and bloodshed” in the Valley.
“I will fight democratically and peacefully for the restoration of statehood. But I will not allow Kashmir to once again plunge into fire. Families here have already suffered enough and I do not want to see that cycle of grief return,” he said.
He also ruled out any political accommodation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to achieve the objective. “If inclusion of BJP in the government will help restore statehood, then take my resignation and make any other MLA the Chief Minister, but I will not compromise,” he said.
He recalled that after the last assembly elections, he too had the option of aligning with the BJP. “Like Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti did in 2015 and 2016, I could have chosen to form government with the BJP. Forming govt with the BJP perhaps statehood would have come sooner. But I chose the other path, to keep BJP away from power in J&K. We may have to wait longer, but I will never allow them to enter government through us,” he said.
Responding to voices demanding protests for statehood, CM Omar drew a comparison with Ladakh. “In Ladakh, when people came out, firing started within an hour. Here in Kashmir, they won’t even wait that long – bullets will rain within ten minutes. I don’t want Kashmiri families to collapse under grief again. We will continue our fight, but democratically and peacefully,” he stressed.
He also reminded people that Ladakh, which had initially welcomed the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, has now admitted that it was the constitutional protection which safeguarded their interests. “We had said it then, and we say it now, whatever happened on August 5, 2019, was wrong,” he said.
He said that his government’s struggle for statehood would remain rooted in democratic values and non-violence. “We are not against development or governance, but statehood is our identity. We will not rest until it is restored and that too without surrendering our principles,” he said—(KNO)
