‘Centre made impossible assurances to Ladakh’: Omar on statehood, Sixth Schedule protests

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has accused the Central government of failing to fulfil its promises made to the people of both Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at a book launch event on Sunday, Omar said the Centre’s delay in fulfilling the promises has increased the divide with the people instead of bridging it.

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According to the National Conference leader, the Centre had prepared a roadmap to restore statehood after the abrogation of Article 370 and the division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, namely J&K and Ladakh, in August 2019. However, the roadmap remains unimplemented, he added.

Claiming that the Centre had given impossible assurances to Ladakh, Omar said the people of the UT were promised the Sixth Schedule, but everyone knew it would be impossible to accord the same, as the region shares sensitive borders with China and Pakistan and has significant military deployment in view of the same. The Sixth Schedule promise was made to make people take part in the Hill Council elections, he claimed.

The J&K CM also questioned the Centre’s U-turn on Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been arrested under the stringent National Security Act following the violence in Leh last week by people protesting, demanding statehood and the Sixth Schedule.

Omar was reported as saying by news agency PTI that no one found fault with Wangchuk till he was praising the PM (Narendra Modi) for his work and thanking him for according the UT status to Ladakh in 2019. However, the government has suddenly discovered his Pakistan connection, he added.

On the Centre’s promise to J&K on statehood, the CM stated: “You told us it was a three-stage process — first delimitation, then elections, and finally statehood. The first two have been completed, but the third has gone nowhere. And then you wonder why there is a trust deficit.”