Srinagar, Nov 5: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Jammu and Kashmir would not have been downgraded to a union territory had the road map presented by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee been followed.
He recalled during the obituary references in the legislative assembly that the assembly of that time had passed a resolution for granting greater autonomy to Jammu & Kashmir, which New Delhi had rejected during Vajpayee’s prime ministership.
“Vajpayee realized his mistake and then he designated the then-law minister to engage in a dialogue with the state government on the subject. But, as providence would have it, he passed away and that was it.”
“What should I say about late Vajpayee? He was a great visionary. Vajpayee was a towering personality, who started the Lahore bus and went to Minar-e-Pakistan. He always tried to build friendly ties with Pakistan. He was the one who continuously stated that friends can be changed, but not neighbors,” Abdullah added.
He said that Vajpayee’s slogan of ‘insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri identity)’ was full of vision and a reflection of his statesmanship.
“Perhaps he was the first and last leader who raised this slogan,” he said.
Abdullah said Vajpayee opened roads to connect the people of the divided parts of Jammu & Kashmir.
“The motive behind the opening of roads was to connect people and the civil society so that a personal relationship is created. But, unfortunately, the path and the road map shown by Vajpayee has been left midway, and instead of connecting people, distances are being created.”
“If Vajpayee’s road map on Jammu & Kashmir had been implemented and followed, we would not have been where we are at present,” Abdullah said, as he paid rich tribute to Vajpayee.
Referring to MLA Kulgam M Y Tarigami’s remarks about the autonomy resolution brought by the then NC government in the assembly in 2000, Abdullah said while it is true that the resolution was sent back, “Vajpayee realized it later that the government had reacted in a hurry”.
“So, he appointed senior minister Arun Jaitley to hold talks with the J&K government on it,” the chief minister said, adding it would be difficult to disagree with Vajpayee’s intentions on J-K.
The Leader of the House said the list of obituary references was huge which indicated “how long the gap was between our two sessions”.
He said the last such session was held in 2018.
“57 personalities — former president, former prime minister, former governor, ex-MLAs, and ex-MLCs are on the list. This will perhaps be the last time we will be paying tributes to people from Ladakh as they are no more a part of us,” he added.
Abdullah also said there were 45 people on the list with whom he has worked or were known to him, and went on to mention a few.
Paying tributes to Pranab Mukherjee, Abdullah said there was a lot to learn from the former president’s life.
“Mukherjee did not have Godfathers and was not parachuted into politics. He worked hard,” he said, adding that he did justice with all the posts he held.
The Leader of the House also paid tributes to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and others, including his former colleague and BJP leader Devendra Singh Rana who passed away last week.
Speaking of Rana, he said, “If there is one colleague I was sad about losing, it was Rana. In the election heat, we said bitter things. But, I did not know he was so ill. Had I known, I would have tried to improve our relations.”
He also recalled his close political association with the deceased Nagrota MLA over 20 years and hailed him for fulfilling all his responsibilities, both in the National Conference and the BJP, with dedication.
The chief minister said all the 56 persons named in the obituary list have done something in serving the people and “we should go through their biographies so that we can learn from them”.
After his speech, the House observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls.
