Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that he would prefer to resign rather than form a government with the BJP to ensure statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
In a public rally in south Kashmir, Omar delivered a speech directed mostly at his own party legislators: “It is possible if we had included them (the BJP) in the government, we would have got a return gift, we would have gotten the status of a state immediately. But are you ready to make this compromise? Because I am not.”
“If you are ready, tell us. If, to get the status of a state, it is necessary to include the BJP in the government, please accept my resignation, make some other MLA the chief minister and make a government with the BJP,” he said. “I am not ready to make such a government. If I have to wait to see Jammu and Kashmir as a state, I will wait.”
He said that his party colleagues will have to “show courage” and “fight”.
Omar said that after the party’s resounding win in the elections, he had two options before him. “I have never made the situation an excuse; despite that, I only know how difficult it is to work,” he said. “There were two options before me after the elections. One option that was adopted earlier was to make the BJP part of the government, the way Mufti Mohammad Sayeed sahib did in 2015 and then Mehbooba Mufti in 2016. They could have kept the BJP out of the government, but the excuse was that the BJP was made part of the government because Jammu had to be given representation. Without including the BJP in the government, we gave representation to Jammu.”
Referring to party legislators, Omar said they say one thing in public and another behind closed doors. “You praise the officers in front of the cameras and in closed rooms, you castigate them. This – talking differently at different places – will not work. What you say to me when you come to my room (about the bureaucrats), talk like that outside as well,” he said. “Talking one thing before the media about these officers and other things in closed rooms is like deceiving the people.”
