Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Friday said that the National Conference is hopeful of receiving good news regarding the restoration of statehood in August. Hitting out at the BJP, Choudhary said that they “question us about our poll promises, but I would also like to remind them about their own promise of the return of statehood to J&K.”
Emphasising the limited powers of the Omar Abdullah government due to certain “obstacles” such as the delay in the clearing of Transaction of Business Rules by the Raj Bhawan, the deputy CM said, “I hope that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister will live up to the promises they have made in the Parliament. It is where Indian democracy draws its power, and I hope that they will fulfil their promises.”
Choudhary added that “there cannot be a better time than this” for the restoration of statehood.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event at the National Conference headquarters in Srinagar, Nawa-i-Subh, he said that the UT government has had a “cooperative” relationship with the Centre and the “Centre must restore statehood at the earliest possible time.”
Over the past week, the Congress, an NC ally in the J&K government, has turned up the tempo in its demand for the restoration of statehood. On July 16, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to the Prime Minister, seeking restoration of J&K’s statehood.
After this, the party’s J&K unit held protests in Srinagar and Jammu, followed by a protest demonstration at New Delhi to push for restoration ahead of Parliament’s ongoing monsoon session.
The NC government has repeatedly urged the Centre to restore statehood to J&K ever since it was elected in September last year. In June, as PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the Katra Srinagar rail link, Chief Minister Abdullah told him, “I am of the belief that it will not take too long to correct this (statehood). Aur aap hi ke haathon Jammu Kashmir ko dobara riyasat ka darja haasil hoga.”
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Since J&K’s downgrading from a state to a UT, the security apparatus and officials of central services remain outside the ambit of the elected government.
Earlier this month, as the CM was restricted from visiting the martyr’s graveyard in Srinagar, he took aim at the Lieutenant Governor, underlining that his decency “should not be mistaken for weakness.”
