A former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah-led all-party delegation from Jammu and Kashmir, Thursday, held a meeting with Opposition leaders from various national parties who supported their demand for restoring the Union Territory’s statehood and holding of elections in the erstwhile state as soon as possible.

Talking to newsmen, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar said the Opposition leaders unanimously agreed that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood must be restored and election should be held in the former state without any further delay.

He said that the leaders will visit Srinagar in May later this year to “share the pain of the people of Jammu and Kashmir” and assure the people there of their support.

Sharad Pawar, along with several other senior leaders from national parties including the Congress, DMK, TMC, CPIM, RJD, SP, AAP, and others met with a delegation of all parties from Jammu and Kashmir led by former J&K CM and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah.

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Later, the delegation marched to the office of Election Commission of India to memorandum demanding assembly elections in the erstwhile state. Speaking after the meeting with the Election Commission, Abdullah said the poll panel gave assurances about taking the required steps for holding elections in the former state.

Abdullah said that regardless of alliances and policies, all parties in Jammu and Kashmir want elections and there is no reason in delaying the long overdue polls in the former state.

Jammu and Kashmir has not seen an elected government since 2014 and has been under New Delhi’s direct rule since the PM Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre junked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and abrogated Article 370 in August 2019.

The Centre also bifurcated the former state in two Union Territories— Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh—by introducing and passing the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2019. The Lok Sabha cleared the bill the next day.

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Two days after attending the all-party meet called by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Vice-President of National Conference Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the region’s mainstream political parties have rejected the delimitation, election and then statehood, the sequence of events proposed by the Delimitation Commission.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah addressed a press conference on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir where Omar Adbullah said the Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream political parties want delimitation, statehood and then the election. He also said uf the Central government want to hold polls, they will have to restore the statehood first.

The National Conference leader said the leaders of the political parties did not discuss anything outside the agenda of the Gupkar Alliance during the three-hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

While Farooq Abdullah said it will be foolish to demand restoration of Article 370 from the current BJP government. Speaking with the Indian Express, Abdullah said it took the BJP 70 years to fulfil its political agenda for Article 370. The struggle for the restoration of Article 370 has just started and the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir don’t want to fool people by telling them the state will get 370 back in these talks.

This statement came a day after the prime minister’s meeting with 14 senior leaders from Jammu and Kashmir. In the meeting that lasted for more than three hours on Thursday, Omar Abdullah was one of the five persons who could not speak, the other four being Nirmal Singh, Tara Chand, Ghulam A Mir and Ravinder Raina.

Omar Abdullah also said as far as Delimitation Commission is concerned, the party has made it very clear – they have authorised Farooq Abdullah to take a view as and when necessary. There has been no fresh approach to the National Conference from the Delimitation Commission.

As per the Commission Officials definition, the delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.

According to the Jammu and Kashmir leaders, PM Modi said that his government wanted statehood to be back in Jammu and Kashmir and elections to be held at the earliest. He also sought to address the concerns of the leaders regarding mistrust of the people in the Valley.

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National Conference leader and former CM Omar Abdullah said that he told the PM that there is an atmosphere of mistrust between the Centre and the Valley. He said the trust has been shattered. Echoing similar sentiments, Mehbooba Mufti said, she told the PM with a smile that people in Kashmir are worried. They are jailed at the drop of a hat.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Jammu and Kashmir will be given statehood at an appropriate time. Shah was replying to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who asked the home minister about the promises he made to the people after the abrogation of Article 370, which provided special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Replying to the discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Shah questioned the Congress’ contribution to the region in the last seven decades during a Lok Sabha discussion on J&K Reorganisation Bill. Shah also criticised the Congress for failing to account for its actions in Jammu and Kashmir over the past 70 years, and now seeking answers from the Narendra Modi government.

Questioning on abrogation of article 370, Chowdhury had asked the Modi government about the ways to improve things in Jammu and Kashmir. He said dreams that the Modi government had shown to the people of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 have not been fulfilled yet. Jammu and Kashmir has not returned to normalcy. More than Rs 90,000 crore of local business has finished. On Monday, Rajya Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad had reiterated the Congress party’s demand to restore statehood status to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The home minister said he had no objection and will give an account for everything but those who were given the opportunity to govern for generations should look within if they are even fit to demand an account. He said many members of the House have said that bringing the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, means Jammu and Kashmir won’t get statehood.

Shah also clarified in his speech that it is not written anywhere that Jammu and Kashmir won’t get statehood. Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has got nothing to do with the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. Statehood would be given to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was introduced by minister of state (MoS) for home affairs G. Kishan Reddy in the Rajya Sabha on February 4 to replace Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

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The new bill aims to merge the Jammu and Kashmir cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers with that of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territory (AGMUT)

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