J&K CM Omar Abdullah says door still open on special status resolution

Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said that the NC resolution on restoration of special status and constitutional guarantees passed by the Jammu and Kashmir assembly had not been rejected by anyone and that the door was still open. On the sidelines of a function in Srinagar, he said the Congress party's statements on the resolution were a "compulsion" in view of the elections in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, where BJP targeted the party during the campaign.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that the NC resolution was not for restoration of Article 370 as the constitutional provision had been abrogated by Parliament. "All members of the J&K assembly except BJP supported the (NC) resolution, which has not been rejected by anyone, so the door is still open," said Abdullah. "Congress is not part of our government and they are supporting us from outside." The CM said the Congress' recent assertions on the resolution would not dilute it in any way. "Congress had the compulsion to attempt to dilute this resolution as the BJP targeted them during the recent election campaign in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. But nothing can get diluted because of them. The resolution has been passed by an overwhelming majority," he said.

Had the resolution been hollow or without any impact, he said, then the PM and home minister would not have mentioned it repeatedly. "We are in a UT set-up, where security, policing, law and order comes under central government and LG (lieutenant governor) sahib looks after it. Some things in which people want us to progress cannot happen in the UT set-up," said Abdullah.