Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday welcomed the Congress initiative to write a letter to the prime minister advocating restoration of statehood to the Union Territory, saying “we are not demanding something that was not promised to us”.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, he said the Supreme Court’s directive to the Centre to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood “as soon as possible” has gone long back.
He was reacting to the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi jointly writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the government to bring a legislation in the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament to grant full statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is a very good thing, we were waiting for this day when the opposition would raise our voice in Parliament and Delhi. I am thankful to Kharge and Rahul that they have raised the Statehood issue with the Centre”, the chief minister said, when asked about the letter.
He said, “We are not demanding something which was not promises to us. We were repeatedly promised within and outside Parliament, Supreme Court and public functions that the statehood will be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at the appropriate time”.
“You might remember that when Supreme Court passed its order (on Article 370), it called for restoration of statehood as soon as possible.We are saying that as soon as possible had gone long back and now Jammu and Kashmir should get back statehood as early as possible,” Abdullah said.
Asked about reported plan of Congress to gherao Parliament on the opening day of the Monsoon session, he said, “We had no talks with them. We will talk and see what we have to do.”