In its inaugural cabinet meeting on Thursday, the Omar Abdullah-led government passed a resolution calling on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre to reinstate statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
The draft of the resolution has been prepared by the National Conference, which won 42 seats in the recently held assembly elections.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is expected to travel to New Delhi and hand over the draft of the resolution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone questioned the NC government’s decision to pass the statehood resolution through the cabinet instead of the assembly, which he believes is the proper institution for such issues.
Criticism Arises Over Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet Resolution on Jammu and Kashmir Statehood
“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, Assembly is the proper institution for addressing major issues like that of statehood or Article 370,” Sajad Lone wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“When the NC Government passed a resolution on autonomy they passed it in the Assembly not through a cabinet resolution. What has changed now. Fail to understand why this resolution should not have been reserved for 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.
Peoples Democratic Party MLA Waheed Para also criticised Omar Abdullah’s resolution on statehood, calling it a mere rectification of the August 5, 2019 decision and a ‘setback’ for not addressing Article 370.
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Supreme Court to Hear Plea for Timely Restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s Statehood
On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea seeking a time-bound restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the applicants, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing before a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. This follows the Supreme Court’s December 2023 ruling, which upheld the revocation of Article 370 but directed that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood be restored “at the earliest” and assembly elections be held by September 2024. Omar Abdullah has since emphasized that the Jammu and Kashmir assembly will prioritize a resolution against the Centre’s decision.
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