PM should've talked about J-K's statehood in address to nation: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have talked about restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood in his address to the nation. Modi explained the benefits of the GST reforms to the people in his address to the nation on Sunday evening. The revised GST rates came into effect on Monday. "You are talking about GST, it would have been better had you (Modi) talked about our statehood in the speech," Abdullah told reporters here. Asked if the NC is hopeful of getting a favourable judgement from the Supreme Court -- where a petition on the matter is listed for hearing in the second week of October -- Abdullah said every citizen of Jammu and Kashmir is hoping that statehood would be restored. "Not just the National Conference, but everyone has hopes that we will get our statehood back," he said.

Asked about JKLF chairman Yasin Malik's case, the former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir said it was for the courts to decide. "Courts make the decision. The court will decide that. We have no role in that," he said. Malik, who is serving a life sentence in a terror funding case, was arrested in February 2019 and is facing several cases, including those related to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed and the attack on IAF personnel at Rawalpora in 1990. Abdullah described the system of governance in J-K as "walking on a razor's edge". "... but we have to walk on it and we cannot step back," he said. Responding to a question about the detention of AAP MLA Mehraj Malik, the NC president said while the language used by the legislator from Doda was inappropriate, booking him under PSA was wrong. "The words used by Malik were inappropriate. Such language against an officer was unparliamentary. But the PSA was also wrong. They could have resolved it through talks. But they did not do that," Abdullah said. He, however, said the elected government has no authority to revoke the PSA. "We don't have that authority; it is with the lieutenant governor," he said.