7 Years of Article 370 Abrogation | Omar Abdullah to Karan Thapar

a modi kawada it's a modi promise so obviously he holds that promise to a higher standard than regular promises that might be made so fine the modi government shows no signs of restoring statehood so can you start by explaining why you believe an immediate restoration of statehood is not just important but essential well quite simply because uh the i think the credibility of the union government in Jammu and Kashmir rests on them fulfilling this promise. It's been a promise, as you rightly said in your opening remarks, it's been a promise made to the Supreme Court not just three years ago, but when the entire 370 issue was being argued in the Supreme Court. At that time, in order to stave off the possibility of the Supreme Court ordering restoration of statehood with a fixed timeline, the way they did with elections. The Union government preempted it by saying that it's a three-stage process, delimitation, elections, and statehood and statehood would be restored early to which the Supreme Court said that it should be done as soon as possible at the earliest opportunity That has been what more than four or five years now I don't remember the exact date when the judgment came out, but long enough for as soon as possible to have passed. You had assembly elections a little less than two years ago, and we are still where we are. Now you ask me why? For two reasons. One, the Prime Minister put his personal credibility behind it. When he came to Jammu and Kashmir, he said that the restoration of statehood is not just any other promise. It's a Modi ka wada. It's a Modi promise. So obviously, he holds that promise to a higher standard than regular promises that might be made. So fine, this promise has greater weightage. And two, the absence of statehood affects governance in Jammu and Kashmir. A dual power center in any area, much less an area that has the history that Jammu and Kashmir has, doesn't work well for governance. So for these and many other reasons, this is a promise whose time has come a long time ago.