Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday expressed his concern that the Union Territory’s statehood is not being restored because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win the recent assembly elections. Speaking to the media outside his private office, he stated that an impression is growing among the people of Jammu and Kashmir that their statehood is being held hostage to the BJP’s electoral results.
“Sometimes it looks like people of Jammu and Kashmir will not get statehood because the BJP lost the elections,” Abdullah said. “This is an injustice because nowhere was it said that statehood will be restored only if the BJP wins.”
Abdullah, who heads the 11-month-old government, identified the lack of statehood as the biggest challenge his administration faces. He accused the BJP of being the “only party that opposed statehood restoration.” He pointed out that the process was expected to follow a three-step plan: first, delimitation, then elections, and finally, the restoration of statehood.
“The delimitation happened, elections were conducted, and people enthusiastically participated in the polls,” he said. “It was bad luck for the BJP that they did not win the polls, but people cannot be punished for that.”
The Chief Minister also addressed other issues, including the tourism sector in Kashmir. He acknowledged that stakeholders are not happy with the current numbers despite the government’s efforts to revive tourism. “We made efforts for the revival of tourism in the Valley. But tourists did not come in numbers like we expected. But we will continue our efforts,” he assured.
Additionally, Abdullah weighed in on the controversy surrounding a campaign with the slogan ‘I love Muhammad.’ He strongly condemned the arrest of individuals over the slogan, stating that only a “mentally sick person” could find a problem with those three words. “Who can have a problem with these three words? I fail to understand how it can become a basis for arrest,” he asserted.
Abdullah questioned the legality of the action, asking, “I would like the courts to set it right at the earliest. How is it illegal to write I love Muhammad?” He further argued that if people of other religions are free to display images of their deities without legal consequence, then writing ‘I Love Muhammad’ cannot be considered illegal, even if the campaign is linked to the Muslim community.