SRINAGAR — In a bold move challenging a recent Supreme Court observation, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has initiated a massive, door-to-door signature campaign to demand the restoration of the region’s statehood. The announcement was made during his Independence Day speech in Srinagar, where he strongly criticized the court’s stance of linking statehood to the security situation and recent terror attacks.
During a hearing on a petition seeking statehood for J&K, the Supreme Court had noted that “ground realities” and incidents like the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 lives, could not be ignored. This remark, according to Abdullah, unfairly punishes the people of J&K for a crime they did not commit.
“Will the killers of Pahalgam and their masters in the neighboring country decide whether we will be a state?” Abdullah asked in his address. He argued that such a condition gives external forces a powerful tool to sabotage the democratic process and deny the aspirations of the people.
As a direct response, the Chief Minister announced that his government and the National Conference party would spend the next eight weeks collecting signatures from citizens across all 90 assembly constituencies. The signed documents, he said, would be submitted to both the Central government and the Supreme Court as a clear demonstration of the public’s will. “If people don’t sign, I will accept defeat,” he stated, framing the campaign as a “referendum” on the issue.
Political Reactions
The move has been met with sharp and varied reactions from the political landscape.
- Allies’ Support: The National Conference and its allies have applauded the campaign, calling it a necessary and democratic step to pressure the Centre and the judiciary. They view it as a way to give a voice to the people who have been without full statehood and democratic rights for years.
- Opposition’s Criticism: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition parties have dismissed the campaign as a “gimmick” and “theatrics.” They argue that a signature drive has no legal or constitutional standing and that Abdullah should have instead pushed for a resolution in the state assembly. A PDP spokesperson accused Abdullah of “soft obedience” towards the Central government and called the campaign a “confession of political failure,” stating that he should apologize to the people for failing to secure a clear timeline for statehood.
The Central government, for its part, has not yet officially commented on the signature campaign. Its official position remains that statehood will be restored at an “appropriate time,” once the security situation is deemed stable. The outcome of the campaign and the Central government’s response to it in the Supreme Court will be a critical test of the balance between democratic will and security concerns in the region.
