Hope PM Modi and Amit Shah keep promise to restore statehood: Omar Abdullah – Times of India

NEW DELHI: NC Vice President Omar Abdullah struck a cordial note with Center after Prime Minister Modi complimented his party’s “commendable performance” in the J&K polls and said he looks forward “to a constructive relationship in the true spirit of federalism so that the people of J&K benefit from continued development and good governance.”
Abdullah, in separate interviews to news agencies and TV channels, admitted that J&K could not afford an antagonistic relationship with the central government and said that both Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah are “honorable men” and that restoring J&K’s position standsas promised by them in Parliament and through their representative in SC “should happen at the earliest”.
“Nowhere has the BJP ever said: first there will be our government and then the state. The Prime Minister never said that. The people of J&K have spoken and I hope that the Prime Minister will now be magnanimous and restore the state at the earliest,” he stated.
Abdullah also underlined that J&K will not benefit if the LG decides to be hostile and said he believed that once the state recovers, the next step should be the restoration of the Legislative Council. “We have to represent everyone,” he said. Omar added that the NC-Congress government should take the people of Jammu on board and give them a sense of belonging and reassure them “that this government will not work on party political lines”.
“This government will be as much for the people who voted for the BJP as it is for the people who voted for the National Conference or the Congress,” he said. Stating that the J&K coalition government will have to find a way to work with the Centre, he hoped that the Union government would respect the people’s mandate and join the J&K government in solving the problems of the people to solve.