Srinagar: In his first cabinet meeting on Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah introduced the draft resolution for restoring statehood to J&K prepared by the National Conference, which was unanimously adopted. Omar is expected to submit the resolution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he meets him.
However, opposition leaders said that the statehood resolution is a setback as it fails to address the restoration of Article 370.
People Democratic Party MLA Waheed Para said the resolution is the same as the one introduced in 2019, albeit with some modifications. He said the real issue was the restoration of Article 370, which was not addressed, and it was a setback.
“Omar Abdullah’s first resolution on statehood is nothing less than a rectification of the August 5th, 2019 decision. No resolution on Article 370 and scaling down the demand to mere statehood is a huge setback, especially after seeking votes on the promise of restoring Article 370,” Para shared on X.
People’s Conference Chief Sajad Lone questioned the government’s decision to bypass the Assembly to adopt the resolution.
“Cabinet is a majoritarian institution of governance. It does not reflect all shades and opinions as per the will of the people of J and K. All across the country, to the best of my knowledge, the Assembly is the proper institution for addressing major issues like that of statehood or Article 370,” Sajad Lone shared in a post on X.
“When the NC Government passed a resolution on autonomy they passed it in the Assembly, not through a cabinet resolution. What has changed now? I fail to understand why this resolution should not have been reserved for the Assembly. Why are we so keen to trivialise everything? Would have loved to see which way BJP and other parties vote on statehood and on Article 370 resolution when it is presented in the Assembly,” Lone added.
Notably, on Thursday, a plea calling for the timely restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir was brought before the Supreme Court for urgent consideration, with the court agreeing to hear the matter. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, sought the urgent hearing before a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, alongside Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.