PM has assured statehood to Jammu and Kashmir: Leaders

After the first meeting with J&K leaders since 2019 when Article 370 was scrapped, a regional party chief says PM said the govt was committed to restoring J&K’s statehood

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to a group of 14 leaders from Jammu & Kashmir that he wanted to remove “dil ki doori and Dilli ki doori” — distance between hearts and the distance with Delhi — National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said after a meeting to chalk out the future course of action in the union territory, on Thursday.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Omar said both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah assured that they were committed to the restoration of J&K’s statehood. The meeting was called nearly two years after the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories — J&K and Ladakh.

“The takeaway from the meeting was that the PM said he wanted to remove ‘dil ki doori and Dilli ki doori’ but I as well as other leaders are sure that one meeting is not enough for the same. However, a process has begun,” Omar said. 

The central leadership wanted to hold the assembly polls immediately after the delimitation commission submits its report but Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad urged the PM to restore full statehood before conducting elections, he said.

NC president Farooq Abdullah said his party would continue to challenge through legal and constitutional means the abrogation of special status of J&K under Article 370. “I conveyed to the PM that the statehood means reverting even the IAS and IPS cadres of J&K. The state has to be in totality.”

The meeting was also attended Congress’s Tara Chand and GA Mir; PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, J&K Apni Party’s Altaf Bukhari; BJP’s Ravinder Raina, Nirmal Singh, and Kavinder Gupta; CPI(M)’s M Y Tarigami; National Panthers Party’s Prof Bheem Singh; and Peoples Conference’s Sajad Gani Lone. Amit Shah, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh were also present.

5 Aug
Day in 2019 the Centre scrapped Article 370

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