Srinagar: As he completes a year in his tenure as the first chief minister of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah is facing challenges posed by the Pahalgam terror attack that destroyed the valley’s thriving tourism business, dealing a debilitating blow to its economy, and monsoon disasters that destroyed infrastructure in the Jammu region. in an interview on Ramesh Vinayak And Mir Ehsaan At his residence in Srinagar on Sunday, soon after completing a 21-km run in the Kashmir Marathon, the 55-year-old National Conference leader spoke on a range of issues, including the lack of progress on the restoration of the state and his frequent meetings with the Raj Bhavan. Edited excerpts:
How was the first year of your government?
It is a challenge for any government when there is a transition from one elected government to another. Our transformation was even more unique. We changed from President’s rule to elected government. And, for many of us, there has also been a change from a state government to a union territory government. So, it’s been a steep learning curve.
In the last one year, you have had differences with the Lieutenant Governor on many issues. How is this affecting your work?
Look, it’s not a pretty picture when you can’t decide who your authorities are. If (any) Prime Minister tells Modi that he is not going to decide who will be the secretaries of his various departments in the Government of India, or who will be the next Army Chief, how easy will it be for him to govern? This is the situation we find ourselves in. I look after departments, but administrative secretaries are not to my liking. If the performance of officers has been less than satisfactory, I would not have been able to discipline them. Obviously, they are accountable to the person who puts them there. The distribution of powers makes it clear that IAS and IPS appointments are the direct responsibility of the Raj Bhavan. But Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officers also have a problem.
Similarly, you decide which officer you want to send to Ladakh. I understand that this is part of the discretionary powers of Raj Bhavan, but some degree of consultation is necessary. At present, it seems that sending state service officers to Ladakh is more of a punishment than anything else. It is almost as if a message is being sent to them not to toe the line of the elected government, and if you do, you will have to face consequences. Even an officer of the Chief Minister’s Office was threatened to be sent to Ladakh. So this does not make for a very healthy picture. The information department, which is headed by a JKAS cadre officer, is headed by an IAS officer to keep it out of the ambit of the elected government. As the Chief Minister, I should decide who is my director of information. Why is this the case? It has been more than a year now, we have no Advocate General. When the elected government allowed the current AG to continue working, why was he not allowed to work?
Have you expressed these concerns to the Center and sought clarity on power distribution?
We have submitted what we believe is the correct interpretation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, to clarify the business rules. This has come into some difficulty because of differences of opinion. Obviously, if it was as seamless as we wanted, the rules would have been notified by now. But these things have been being discussed at various levels, especially on the posts of AG and Director, Information…
We know our place. But the Chief Ministers are ex-officio Chancellors of Islamic Universities, who are still not with us despite the fact that we have transferred this file to the Secretariat. As the Energy Minister, I should be the ex-officio Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation. But I am not. Why the reluctance to give it back to us? I have the culture department but I am not the president of the cultural academy…
If security and law and order are the responsibility of LG then I do not interfere in those decisions. But why are the bodies which should be part of the elected government not returned to us?
Have you talked to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on these issues?
Why do I have to beg to get these things back?
How are your relations with Raj Bhavan?
There is a working relationship but nothing beyond that.
Do you mean coordination is missing?
Not there. (It is not there).
What do you think about the delay in restoring statehood?
I don’t understand this. It was a three-stage process: delimitation, elections and statehood. Now we keep hearing that it will return in due course. Yet no one has determined what that appropriate time is. What is the yardstick by which I, as the elected Chief Minister, or our government with the popular mandate, will know that we have reached that opportune time? What steps do I need to take? Because ultimately we all need a goal.
As an elected Chief Minister with a mandate based on returning statehood, I should be told that in this time frame and circumstance statehood will be returned… But, it is unclear and I do not know when statehood will come. One interpretation is that the opportune time would be when the BJP is in power here…
Are you considering going to the Supreme Court?
This is a topic of discussion.
You have indicated that if statehood is not restored within a reasonable time frame, you will step aside and ask the party to nominate a new Chief Minister. How serious are you on this?
See, everything has an expiry period. Even there is patience. How much patience is expected from us?
Are you running out of patience?
I don’t like this kind of theatrics, but obviously the level of frustration is higher today than it was a year ago. We really hoped that this promise made to the public would be fulfilled in the first year itself. Statehood is not about me, my house, my family or even my party. This is about Jammu and Kashmir; It is about a sovereign promise made to the Parliament and the Supreme Court of India. This should count for something.
The Lieutenant Governor has publicly stated that statehood cannot be an excuse for not starting welfare projects as the elected government has full powers to do so.
Which welfare projects have we not started? How about the powers that belong to the elected government but have not been returned to us. We have started new welfare projects. We have increased the amount of social welfare payments, launched a new scheme for self-employment and entrepreneurship called Mission Yuva, provided free transport for women in government buses and made electricity available at subsidized rates at a much better quality than before. We are completing long pending infrastructure projects. I recently inaugurated a bridge in Srinagar, the foundation stone of which I had laid in 2011. It remained on hold for 14 years. Please let us know where we are failing to deliver…
Do you think the Pahalgam terror attack complicated the security dynamics, resulting in an impact on the decision on statehood?
If so then it is extremely unfair because it was not our failure. Who chairs security review meetings? His presidency is held in Raj Bhavan, not in the CM office. No elected government is responsible for such attacks against tourists. nobody. Not Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s government between 1996 to 2002, not Mufti Sayeed’s government from 2002 to 2005, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s rule from 2005 to 2008 and my government between 2009 to 2015. So how can you hold the state’s return hostage like this.
And the broader concern is: Are we going to export this decision to our neighbor? It was not the fault of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in Pahalgam. You held Pakistan responsible for this and after this Operation Sindoor started. In a theoretical situation, tomorrow if we again come close to statehood, they (Pakistan) plot another attack… will our statehood be lost? So are we saying that the status of Jammu and Kashmir state will be decided first across the border and then in Delhi. Statehood cannot be linked to Pakistan’s terrorist strategy.
Do you see any implication of the discontent in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir?
There. People are watching what happens in Ladakh. Part of it is the frustration that an area that is generally peaceful has been pushed to the point where they have come out to agitate. But the other part is that if as a result of this agitation, some of the demands of Ladakh are met, while those of Jammu and Kashmir are not, then how do you expect me to tell the people of Jammu and Kashmir to wait and we will use peaceful, democratic, constitutional means. Therefore both things are being watched very closely.
Do you see any signs of revival of tourism?
It has been slow and understandably so. What happened in Pahalgam has never happened before in Jammu and Kashmir. The scale of failure was huge. Let’s not underestimate this. And this has had an immediate impact on tourism and revival has slowed down. But glad to see some people coming back.
How connected are you with India Block?
My association with India Block is limited to the incidents happening in Jammu and Kashmir. I know where my limits end. I am not going to tell the Indian camp what they should do in other parts of the country, in the same way I would not appreciate it if they started telling me what we should do here. My concerns are more related to the frequency with which we (India Block partners) meet.
You said that you will not form an alliance with BJP for the state. Politics is completely based on practicality. After all, you were a minister in the coalition government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee?
If it is practical, it is also a historical mistake. What PDP did to BJP was a historical mistake and we are still facing its consequences even today. I have no intention of doing so. Same thing will happen if statehood is not given.
What are your priorities for the second year of your term?
We will continue to work to deliver on whatever promises we can make this year. The goal is to drive growth, to try and see where we can bridge the gap between our resources and expenditure and try to take up some big ticket items in terms of infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of his meetings with leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, had talked about his intention to bridge the ‘distance of hearts and distance of Delhi’. How far has this happened?
Work on this is in progress. We could go further.
