SRI NAGAR: On their return to Srinagar after attending the All Party Meeting (APM) convened by PM Narendra Modi in Delhi, National Conference president, and three-time former CM Farooq Abdullah said there was a level of mistrust on J&K and that the onus lies on New Delhi to remove it. His son and former CM Omar Abdullah demanded that after completion of the delimitation exercise, statehood to J&K should be restored and elections held later. “The first PM promised us a plebiscite but went back on it. Narasimha Rao promised us autonomy — in fact sky is the limit — but not independence.
We had told him we never asked for independence and that we wanted autonomy. He promised us autonomy on the floor of the House. Where is that? It was never given,” Abdullah told reporters at his Gupkar residence. In response to a question, the NC president said all leaders put forth their views before the PM. “It (APM) was the first step from the Centre to start the political process in J&K”. Asked whether June 24 APM signaled an end to Gupkar Alliance, he asked: “Why should it be the end of the alliance?”
Omar intervened, saying, “We did not talk about anything, which is outside Gupkar Alliance’s agenda. None of us said we accept August 5, 2019 decisions and let us move ahead.” On Home Minister Amit Shah’s roadmap on J&K – delimitation, elections and restorations of statehood, Omar said, “Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad speaking before PM’s speech at APM clearly told him that we don’t accept this timeline.”
“Not delimitation, election & statehood.., it should be delimitation, statehood and election,” he said adding, “If the election has to be conducted, then statehood should be returned and then we can talk about elections. Whenever we get a chance, we will keep stressing that”.