{"id":355377,"date":"2025-08-01T00:45:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=355377"},"modified":"2025-08-01T00:45:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:15:48","slug":"omar-abdullah-in-gujarat-bats-for-statehood-pm-modi-welcomes-kashmir-to-kevadia-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/omar-abdullah-in-gujarat-bats-for-statehood-pm-modi-welcomes-kashmir-to-kevadia-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Abdullah in Gujarat: Bats for statehood, PM Modi welcomes \u2018Kashmir to Kevadia\u2019 message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Srinagar: On a two-day visit to Gujarat to promote tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called for restoring full statehood to the Union Territory and pressed for the transfer of security responsibilities back to the elected government. His outreach, coming just months after the deadly April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 tourists, including three from Gujarat, was packed with symbolism and political assertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the media in Ahmedabad on July 31, Abdullah strongly criticized Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s current Union Territory status, contrasting it with other regions that have been upgraded to full statehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis status of Union Territory should not have been given to us. In this country, we are those unfortunate people whose statehood was removed and who were given UT status. Others\u2019 UT status was removed and they were given statehood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaffirming the central government\u2019s 2019 commitment to restoring Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s statehood following the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah emphasized the need for concrete action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are emphasising that the promise of reinstating statehood to Jammu and Kashmir should be fulfilled,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the responsibilities should be ours. I have been saying from day one, give us the responsibility of security. We are not \u2018nalayak log\u2019 (incompetent people). Look at the graph from my tenure as CM, every year, militancy and casualties of security personnel came down. We made things better. Give us an opportunity again, and we\u2019ll do even better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah\u2019s visit included stops at the Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar, where he inaugurated the Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF), as well as a tour of the Statue of Unity and the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada district. He called the dam a model for transformative development and noted the constraints Jammu and Kashmir faces due to the inability to regulate water flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can imagine that due to this dam, water reaches the Kutch regions, once ravaged by drought, now sustain farming. It has changed lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that with the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, new opportunities may arise for Kashmir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is our misfortune that we cannot conceive such projects in Kashmir because we do not have permission to stop the flow of water. Now that the Indus Water Treaty has been suspended, it may be part of Jammu and Kashmir\u2019s fate to have such a project in future, so that we don\u2019t face electricity or drinking water shortfalls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Abdullah\u2019s visit and praised the symbolism of his presence in Gujarat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKashmir to Kevadia! Good to see Shri Omar Abdullah Ji enjoying his run at the Sabarmati Riverfront and visiting the Statue of Unity. His visit gives an important message of unity and will inspire fellow Indians to travel to different parts of India,\u201d Modi posted on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah had earlier posted images from his morning jog along the Sabarmati Riverfront, describing it as \u201cone of the nicest places\u201d for a run and admiring the \u201camazing Atal Foot Bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing concerns about the impact of the April Pahalgam attack on the region\u2019s tourism industry, Abdullah acknowledged a sharp initial dip in flight arrivals to Srinagar but said there has been steady recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow it has picked up to 30\u201335 flights. We hope that after the Amarnathji Yatra, it will further improve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also sought to counter perceptions that tourism in Kashmir had collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Amarnathji Yatra is on, and around 3.75 lakh people have participated. Tourists are there. We want more people to come with trust. Even today, hotels are functioning. Vaishno Devi continues to draw lakhs. Don\u2019t think tourism has stalled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On recent encounters between security forces and militants, Abdullah emphasized that such incidents occurred far from tourist areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of these terrorists were killed near Srinagar, Pahalgam, Sonmarg or Gulmarg. They were high in the mountains, in uninhabited jungles. That should not be taken as a comment on the safety of our tourism zones,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: On a two-day visit to Gujarat to promote tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called for restoring full statehood to the Union Territory and pressed for the transfer of security responsibilities back to the elected government. His outreach, coming just months after the deadly April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":355378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2014],"tags":[16359,15686,20026,17223,15520,16101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355379,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355377\/revisions\/355379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/355378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}