SRINAGAR: Peoples Conference chairman and former minister Sajad Gani Lone on Wednesday said "time has come for an amicable divorce" between Jammu and Kashmir.
"Maybe time has come for an amicable divorce. It is not only about developmental matters. Jammu has become the proverbial stick to beat the Kashmiri with," he said.
Lone was responding to the demands from a section for shifting the recently announced National Law University in Budgam district of central Kashmir to the Jammu region and for the separation of Jammu from the Union Territory. Lone is the first Kashmiri leader to openly call for separation of the Union Territory.
In a statement, Lone urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to honour his electoral commitment of establishing the Law University in Budgam, and questioned what he termed Jammu's "obsessive opposition" to developmental initiatives in Kashmir.
"I hope Jammu prospers. But this obsession of having everything and anything that Kashmir wants is more of an issue of lunacy. They have an IIM. What is wrong if a Law University comes to Kashmir," Lone questioned.
"The sanctity of the institution of CM demands that he live up to his promise and keep it there," Lone said.
He suggested that the time has arrived for reconsidering the administrative arrangement between the two regions.
"Maybe the time has come for an amicable divorce. It is not only about developmental matters. Jammu has become the proverbial stick to beat the Kashmiri with," Lone said.
Lone further accused local activists of displaying selective courage, alleging that they remained silent when the Union government "took away everything from them, diverted business, even took away Durbar move," but demonstrate valour "only against their own Kashmir region."
He said Kashmir's integration with the rest of India "cannot be facilitated through intermediaries who continuously malign the region."
"If Kashmir is to integrate with the rest of the country, it will have to be done without the trusted service of touts. We cannot have a region slandering Kashmiris non-stop and petitioning the rest of the country that only one region in J-K is with the country and that the other region is a terrorist region," he said.
He suggested that Kashmiri sentiment has shifted significantly on regional relations.
"I think the people of Kashmir too can't take it anymore. Talk of reservations and the Kashmiris are crowded out. I am sure the desire for divorce is much, much higher in Kashmir than it ever was. Need leadership to call a spade a spade," he stated.
Recently, BJP MLA Sham Lal Sharma stoked a controversy by demanding separation of Jammu over alleged claims of discrimination against the region.
However, the party's state president later distanced the BJP from the statement and said this is not its stand.