‘I Got Demoted’: Omar Abdullah’s J&K Statehood Push in Front of PM Modi

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday made a direct and poignant appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the restoration of full statehood to J&K, humorously pointing out that he had been “demoted” from the chief minister of a state to that of a Union Territory.

Sharing the stage with the Prime Minister at a major event in Katra, Abdullah recalled a previous railway function in 2014. “There are four persons on this stage who were present at the inauguration of the Katra railway station (in 2014). You had just won the election, becoming the Prime Minister for the first time… and I was here as chief minister,” Abdullah said, gesturing towards the PM, Union Minister Jitendra Singh, and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

“If you see, by the blessings of Mata (Vaishno Devi), Sinha sahib has got a promotion,” he said, noting that Sinha had risen from Minister of State for Railways to his current post as LG. “And I had a demotion. I was chief minister of a state and now I am a CM of the UT,” Abdullah stated, drawing a mix of applause and murmurs from the audience.

With a hopeful tone, he addressed the Prime Minister directly, “However, I believe that it will not take long to rectify it… Jammu and Kashmir will again get the statehood under your watch only.”

The J&K Chief Minister’s remarks were made at a large public gathering where Prime Minister Modi inaugurated significant infrastructure projects, including the landmark Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) which provides all-weather connectivity to the Kashmir Valley. The event saw the inauguration of the iconic Chenab and Anji Khad bridges and the flagging off of the first Vande Bharat Express to Kashmir.

During his speech, Abdullah also lauded the completion of the railway project, a dream that even the British could not achieve. “What the British could not achieve has happened at your (Modi’s) hands and Kashmir has been connected to the rest of the country,” he said.

The National Conference leader made it a point to pay rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his crucial role in fast-tracking the project. “It will be a grave mistake if I do not thank former PM Vajpayee. This project was undoubtedly started in 1983-84… but it was completed only after Vajpayee declared it a project of national importance and made provisions in the budget,” Abdullah acknowledged.