JAMMU, Mar 3: While rejecting possibility of any alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said that India and Pakistan came much closer to resolve Kashmir issue when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India.
“We are not talking about any alliance with the BJP, neither is there any scope, nor the need. Our thoughts also do not align,” Omar said while talking to media-persons outside Legislative Assembly here.
“If we talk about J&K, our ideologies are totally different and they (BJP) have the different vision and approach. We will hold discussion on every issue including Statehood and resolution on Article 370,” Omar added.
Speaking on the resolution on special status passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in its first sitting last year Omar said, it has not been rejected by the Central Government and there was no need to bring any other resolution on Article 370, which was abrogated in August 2019.
The Chief Minister said all Legislators need to work together to help the Government to fulfill its priorities for public welfare.
“What we have to do was done in the first Assembly session in November 2024. The resolution is still holding after being passed by the House. The PDP and others helped us in passing the resolution and it is still holding is a big thing,” Omar asserted
The Chief Minister said some people were thinking that any resolution on special status will get outrightly rejected by the Central Government.
“The resolution was not rejected and the fact of the matter is that it is still holding so there is no need to talk further on this,” he added.
Omar said the National Conference will not repeat what it had already done.
“It is not like that we will repeat this thing. What we have to do was done in the first session. If we had not brought that resolution, then there was a possibility of holding discussions on it. We brought a resolution and the House passed it with majority so what is there to talk further on it,” he added.
“There will be a talk inside the House and not outside it. This is not the way,” he said when asked about the protest by Independent MLA Khursheed Ahmed, demanding justice for the families of two persons killed in Sopore and Kathua recently as well as restoration of Article 370 and Statehood.
Earlier, speaking in the Legislative Assembly during obituary references to Dr Singh and four others, Omar said India and Pakistan came closer to resolve the Kashmir issue during the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government and he is not expecting a return to that situation in his lifetime again.
“Dr Singh tried to address the problem with the outside country (Pakistan). He did not make this initiative but inherited it as the start was made by Vajpayee and then Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf. He would have stopped the initiative after taking over as the Prime Minister (in 2004), but he was well aware that the initiative taken by Vajpayee is a big responsibility to carry forward,” the Chief Minister said.
“Manmohan Singh made sincere efforts despite the deteriorating situation,” he said, in an apparent reference to terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
“May I say that both the countries have come closer to resolving this Kashmir problem during that period and I do not see a return to the situation in my lifetime,” Omar said.
He said when the situation deteriorated in 2010, Singh tried to heal the wounds by setting up Working Groups, whether related to politics or meant to improve governance, and they are still relevant.
Singh had constituted five Working Groups on Jammu and Kashmir to grab the initiative for ushering in a phase of development by creating conditions of permanent peace in the State.
While showering praises on Dr Singh, the Chief Minister said the former PM practically initiated measures for the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and his working groups are still relevant.
He said the Government will respond to the issues, which will be raised by the members in the House.
“The Lieutenant Governor was speaking on behalf of the Government, highlighting its priorities. The members need to cooperate as we have to achieve the goal together,” he added.
Omar spoke on Singh’s journey from a village, which is now in Pakistan, to becoming the Prime Minister of India and his contributions towards making India an economic power by introducing reforms especially related to private sector and social welfare measures.
Referring to displaced Kashmiri Pandits, he said everyone is talking about the community but practical steps for their welfare were taken by the Singh-led Government.
“He introduced job reservation for the community in Kashmir and we persuaded them. There was no such effort from anyone else,” he said, adding he provided relief to Pandits by setting up Jagti township in Jammu for the community members who were living in tents.
He said the Lt Governor talked about improved infrastructure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. He said it was Singh who gifted this four-lane project to J&K.
The Chief Minister also spoke about the Railway project to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country and said, “We are waiting for the Prime Minister to inaugurate the service and I hope this will happen within days.”
Omar further said he had accompanied the former Prime Minister to inaugurate the Banihal section of the rail link. And when the work on the Chenab bridge, the highest railway bridge in the world, started during his time but “he, unfortunately, is not among us today to travel on the bridge. At least, he will have the satisfaction that the work started by him was completed by the present dispensation”, Omar said.
He said Singh was the most misunderstood leader and was right in saying that ‘history would judge him more kindly’.
Praising Singh’s “down to earth” personality, the Chief Minister said when the situation deteriorated in Kashmir in 2016, he was not at the helm but was there for the people to listen to them.
Remembering an instance during his previous stint as Chief Minister, Omar said he was also prompt in apologising when something had gone wrong from his side.
“I had written a letter to him (Singh) and he was told that I had leaked the contents during an interview which I clarified after he telephoned me. As soon as he realised the mistake, he promptly telephoned and said sorry.”
Meanwhile, the Assembly observed a two-minute silence to pay tribute to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former Minister Syed Ghulam Hussain Geelani, former Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Manhas and former MLAs Ghulam Hassan Parrey and Choudhary Piara Singh who died after the last Assembly session in November.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather moved the obituary reference after Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s address. Several members including Mubarak Gul (NC); Sham Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Dr Narinder Singh Raina, Vikram Randhawa (BJP); G A Mir, Nizamuddin Bhat, Iftikhar Ahmed (Cong); M Y Tarigami (CPIM), Dr Bashir Ahmed Veeri, Abdul Majeed Larmi (NC) and Mohd Rafiq Naik (PDP) also spoke in the House.
