Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said he is optimistic about ‘something positive’ for the Union Territory during the ongoing parliament session, but not on Tuesday, amid buzz over the centre planning something on the Jammu and Kashmir ‘statehood’.
The National Conference leader’s remarks came on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5. Abdullah clarified that he had no meeting or conversation with the people in Delhi and his statement is based on his “gut feeling”.
“I’ve heard every possible permutation & combination about what to expect in J&K tomorrow (August 5) so let me stick my neck out and say nothing will happen tomorrow – fortunately nothing bad will happen but unfortunately nothing positive will happen either,” Abdullah said in a post on X on Monday evening.
The speculation about ‘something’ happening on August 5 was fuelled by the government’s reported meetings on Monday. Though there was no official word on any meetings, some reports suggested Union Home Minister Amit Shah met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Intelligence Bureau chief Tapan Kumar Deka, and Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Monday.
Another meeting of ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs called for today. What sparked the buzz were back-to-back separate meetings on Sunday between President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. No official reasons for the meetings were known. The meetings come in the backdrop of the upcoming elections to elect a new Vice President after the surprise resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar from the post on July 21.
“I’m still optimistic about something positive for J&K in this monsoon session of Parliament but not tomorrow. And no, I haven’t had any meetings or conversations with people in Delhi. This is just a gut feeling. Let’s see this time tomorrow,” Abdullah wrote in the post on X.
The post is seen as an attempt by the chief minister to put at rest speculation on social media about a fresh reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir.
The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised into the Union territories ofJammu and Kashmirand Ladakh following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Tuesday will be the sixth anniversary of the decision. Incidentally, the Parliament session is also on.
“There is a lot of speculation about what may be announced tomorrow (5th Aug). The peace in Kashmir has come about at a great cost of human lives of security forces personnel and innocent civilians,” Army veteran KJS Dhillon said in one of the posts on X.
I’m still optimistic about something positive for J&K in this monsoon session of Parliament but not tomorrow.
“Let the whole thing settle down. Let’s not jump the gun,” he said.