[ad_1]
New Delhi:
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah has mentioned that he “will not be contesting any assembly elections” whereas Jammu and Kashmir stays a Union Territory, in a stinging piece in The Indian Express because the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s particular standing is about to finish one yr on August 5. He additionally recalled his assembly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi days earlier than the centre’s large Jammu and Kashmir transfer.
“As for me, I am very clear that while J&K remains a Union Territory I will not be contesting any Assembly elections. Having been a member of the most empowered Assembly in the land and that, too, as the leader of that Assembly for six years, I simply cannot and will not be a member of a House that has been disempowered the way ours has,” wrote Mr Abdullah, who was launched from detention earlier this yr, in his opinion piece.
Hundreds of politicians together with Omar Abdullah and his father, Farooq Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti have been detained or arrested in August final yr as a part of the centre’s huge clampdown after its choice to finish particular standing to Jammu and Kashmir underneath Article 370 of the structure and break up it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. All three – the Abdullahs and Ms Mufti are former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.
On the explanations given by the federal government for its large transfer within the area final yr , Mr Abdullah mentioned “none stands the test of basic scrutiny”.
“It (Jammu and Kashmir) has participated in the democratic processes and tried to share in the nation’s development, but the promise made with it was not kept. This is one of those moments when it’s important to ask whether it is better to be popular or to be right. Removing J&K’s special status may have been the popular thing to do but going back on a nation’s sovereign commitments is never going to be the right thing to do,” he wrote.
“Many reasons were given to justify the complete dilution of Article 370 when it was being rammed through Parliament, none stands the test of basic scrutiny. Whether on fuelling terrorism; lack of investment; or human development indices”
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 27, 2020
Omar Abdullah was freed after almost eight months of detention in Srinagar on March 24. Days earlier than that, his father and former Union Minister Farooq Abdullah was additionally launched from home arrest. Mehbooba Mufti remains to be in detention.
The politician additionally wrote about his assembly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi days earlier than the sweeping developments in Jammu and Kashmir final yr. “It’s not a meeting I will forget in a hurry. One day I may write about it but propriety precludes me from saying more than that we left the meeting with a completely different impression about what was going to unfold in the next 72 hours. In one fell swoop, everything we had feared came to pass,” he wrote.
“It’s still impossible to come to terms with what I saw being rolled out on my television set that morning. Hours earlier, at the stroke of midnight, I had been placed under house arrest, and would be shifted to a government guest house by the end of the day,” he wrote to start with of his piece.
Omar Abdullah, who turned 50 on March 10, was detained with out fees however later, the federal government charged him the Public Safety Act (PSA). The fees listed out in a file towards the National Conference chief included his “ability to garner votes even during peak militancy and poll boycotts”. It mentioned Mr Abdullah, a former Union Minister, might affect folks for any trigger and particularly cited his capability to carry voters out within the wake of boycott calls by separatists.
Farooq Abdullah, 83, too was charged underneath the Public Safety Act final September.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink