Omar Abdullah says will launch signature drive for statehood restoration for Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday announced that he will launch a door-to-door signature campaign to demand the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, a day after the Supreme Court urged petitioners to be “mindful of ground realities” such as last month’s Pahalgam terror attack while pressing the Union government on the issue.

Addressing the Independence Day gathering at Bakshi Stadium, here, Abdullah said the campaign would cover all 90 assembly segments over the next eight weeks — the timeframe given by the Supreme Court to the Centre to respond to the statehood plea.

“From today, we will go door to door for a signature campaign on the restoration of statehood. If people are not ready to sign the document, I will accept defeat,” he declared.

Abdullah took strong exception to the court’s reference to the April 22 Pahalgam attack, in which 25 tourists and a local resident were killed. “Will the killers of Pahalgam and their masters in the neighbouring country decide whether we will be a state? Every time we are close to statehood, they will do something to sabotage it. Is this fair? Why are we being punished for a crime we have no role in?” he asked.

Jammu and Kashmir lost its statehood in August 2019 when the Parliament abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated it into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Centre has maintained that statehood will be restored at an “appropriate time” once the security situation improves.

Friday’s ceremony also marked a symbolic political moment — Abdullah became the first Chief Minister in eight years to hoist the national flag on Independence Day in Srinagar. The last time an elected leader presided over the event was in 2017, when Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP was in office.

Reflecting on the political changes since his last Independence Day address as Chief Minister in 2014, Abdullah said: “We had our own identity in the country, a constitution, a flag, and statehood. Today, none of those remain.”

The fall of the PDP-BJP coalition in June 2018 led to Governor’s rule, followed by the reorganisation of the erstwhile state a year later. The September 2024 assembly polls ended six years of central rule, restoring an elected government to the Union Territory.