Omar Abdullah urges Indian political parties to back IIOJK’s statehood bill in parliament
Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has urged major political parties in India to support the introduction of a bill for the restoration of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking to reporters in Srinagar, Omar Abdullah said, “I have written a letter to all those parties who have a good number of MPs in Parliament and requested them to help on the promise made to Jammu and Kashmir on statehood and raise the issue in Parliament so that a bill is brought in this session itself and Jammu and Kashmir gets its statehood back”.
On July 29, Omar Abdullah addressed letters to the presidents of 42 political parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, stressing that the restoration of statehood to IIOJK must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction.
In the three-page letter, he warned that the downgrading of a state into a Union Territory sets a “profound and unsettling precedent” and crosses a “constitutional red line that must never be crossed.” He argued that the reorganization of IIOJK in August 2019 was described as a “temporary and transitional measure”, and cited repeated public assurances from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Citing New Delhi’s stand before the Indian Supreme Court, which reaffirmed its commitment to restoring statehood at the earliest, Omar Abdullah questioned the delay, saying terms like “at the earliest” or “as soon as possible” cannot stretch into years or decades.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have already waited long enough,” he stated. “Statehood must be restored now.”
He called the prolonged and unprecedented disempowerment of occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s people “unjust” and said it undermines the very rationale used to justify the August 2019 changes.
