Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday admitted that his initial optimism for the restoration of statehood is “diminishing” by the day as the process drags on, saying that the prolonged wait is inevitably chipping away at his faith.
However, the chief minister said that despite the decrease in optimism after a year, he was still hopeful that statehood would be restored to J&K.
“I was hopeful from the first day. My hopefulness has decreased a little. But it is still there,” Abdullah told reporters after the second day of the ongoing assembly session.
“But the more this process continues, it is obvious, it is human nature, the hopefulness will decrease, not increase. The more you make us wait, the less hopeful we will be. But it has only been a year, there is still hope. It is good to be hopeful,” he said.
When asked about his next step if statehood was not restored, Abdullah said, “Let’s get to that point first. We will talk then.”
The chief minister refused to comment on a report which claimed that he would resign if statehood was not restored to J&K within a finite timeline.
“I am not going to say anything about that. I have nothing more to say on that...” he said.
The chief minister went on to underscore the difficulties of governance in a Union Territory (UT) setup, arguing that the desire for statehood is rooted in tangible administrative obstacles.
“If there were no obstacles in governance in a UT setup, am I mad to seek statehood? If it were easy in a UT, then all states would have sought to be a UT,” he asserted, pointing to the dichotomy where he is accountable to the assembly, but does not control key administrative postings.
“The department is under me, and I have to answer before the House, but the officer in the department is not of my choice... There are several institutions which should have been under the control of the elected government, but are still not with us,” he said.
Abdullah also took a swipe at the BJP, whose 28 MLAs in the assembly have remained ambiguous on the statehood issue. He said that efforts to force a debate on the matter had been blocked by the assembly speaker saying the matter is sub-judice.
“I know where I stand on the statehood issue; if a resolution for restoration of statehood comes, I know which way we will vote. But we have a party with 28 MLAs about which we have no idea what they think about statehood. They sought votes on statehood, but the Centre did not restore it,” he said.