Detained By My Own Country For Making Elections A Success, Defeating Pakistan’s Designs: Omar Abdullah
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday featured at the 'Ideas of India' summit and rued how he was detained for "defeating Pakistan's designs".
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday featured at the 'Ideas of India' summit and said that he had no clue about the abrogation of Article 370 until the "very end of July or beginning of August". He rued how he was detained for 'defeating Pakistan's designs by encouraging voters to come out and vote in elections'.
"When credible or seemingly credible constitutional authorities sitting in Jammu and Kashmir assure you time and again that you have nothing to worry about and that there is no threat to Jammu and Kashmir's constitutional status and then there is no move to tinker with any of the rules or laws concerning Jammu and Kashmir then you take that at face value which is the mistake that we made," he remarked recollecting the period in run-up to the fateful event.
He recalled how the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, had told J-K leaders that they were "rumour mongering" and told them, "Aap logon ko dara rahe ho (You are scaring people and that there is nothing to worry about and there is no move to do anything to Jammu Kashmir now, of course, he claims he had no idea but I would take that as much of a pinch of salt as I should have his earlier assurances."
When asked about his detainment, Abdullah mentioned how phone lines and mobile networks were cut off before the Abrogation of Article 370.
"I then was told by one of the people working in my home that I was effectively under house arrest and when I went out of the house and looked to the Gates there with these massive padlocks in place on the gates of the house and I asked my security people and they said 'Aapko band kiya hai'," he commented.
Elabourating about the ground for his detainment, the former Jammu-Kashmir CM pointed to a submission in the Supreme Court and said, "They actually detained me for doing what nationalistic India wanted me to do. The grounds for detaining me were that I campaigned against the separatists and that I defeated Pakistan's designs by encouraging voters to come out and vote in elections and because I was capable of defeating Pakistan's designs I should therefore today under the Public Safety Act".
"I was detained by my own country for making elections in India a success now you go figure," he remarked.
He further mentioned how did not expect the detention to go as long as it did and claimed that "there was no contact with the government" during this period.
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'You Don't Wish Away Sovereign Commitments Like That': Omar Abdullah On Article 370
"I understand the politics of Article 370. I understand that its part it was part and parcel of a whole series of election manifestos of the BJP so I understand where they were coming from. But the commitments that were made to Jammu and Kashmir were not made by a political party, they were made by the Union of India with the state of Jammu and Kashmir, to wish those away and to get rid of them in the way they were still is difficult to reconcile oneself with. You don't wish away sovereign commitments like that," Abdullah said about the abrogation.
On the current situation in Jammu-Kashmir, he mentioned that the street protests are being witnessed in the Union territory but wondered if it was due to the "heavy-handedness of the administration".
"On 5th August 2019 when Article 370 was watered down and completely hollowed out this country was told that separatism is a product of Article 370, terrorism is a product of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir's seeming lack of development is a product of Article 370. Once it is gone, all these problems will be done away. Here we are in 2024, we will be reaching the fifth anniversary of what happened in August of this year," he added.
"Pockets of separatist support continue to exist, terror on the ground, and there is hardly a week or two weeks during which a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir is not reported. Areas that were hither to free of terror, particularly the hills of Jammu — Rajouri and Poonch are now seeing militant attacks," he further stressed.
Pointing to the incidents of militant attacks, the former J-K chief minister also said, "I don't think there was a single targeted attack against the member of the minority community by militants when I was Chief Minister of 6 years. Today that is a regular occurrence unfortunately in the valley. Those Kashmiri pandits that we had recently in the valley settled with government jobs and also other packages are not screaming to be allowed to leave Kashmir and go back to Jammu."
Abdullah questioned the J-K administration's claims of development seeking to know a single new project in the union territory after the Modi government's move on Article 370. "I reserve the right to call out rubbish," he remarked dismissing the tourism numbers which he said now include the pilgrimage numbers including Mata Vaishnodevi and Amartnath Yatris that previous governments did not include earlier.
More Kashmiri Pandits Want To Leave Kashmir Today Then Wanted To 5 Or 10 Years Ago: Omar Abdullah
The former J-K CM also accused the Modi government of failure in returning Kashmiri Pandit community as a sense of security to be able to return to the valley.
"The absence of Kashmiri Pandit from Kashmir is the biggest open wound of the last 30 + years… Kashmiri Pandits did not leave because of 370, they left because their sense of security was snatched away from them, they won't come back until that sensitive security is returned to them and this government has not returned Kashmiri Pandits' security the fact is that more Kashmiri Pandits want to leave Kashmir today then wanted to five or 10 years ago," he remarked.
Omar Abdullah highlighted how his father, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, had resigned before the exodus began. When asked about his own government's work for Kashmiri pandits, he said, "We clearly did not do enough. Because if we had done enough they would have all come back but we did make a start particularly working with Dr Manmohan Singh's government we had a package of incentives that brought more than 5000 Kashmiri pandits to settle them in various parts of the valley and government jobs and it was a fairly successful program Unless you restore their sense of security and give the option to go back from where they came from all of this is just optics."
This marks the third edition of the ‘Ideas of India Summit’ hosted by the ABP Network. The two-day long summit intends to dive into ‘The People’s Agenda’ and examine the diversified aspects of the forthcoming elections set to take place in India this year.
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The event is witnessing participation from eminent personalities from several sectors and intends to provide a platform for detailed discussions on the various aspects of Indian society and governance.
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