National Conference working president Omar Abdullah on Sunday accused the state government of making a “weak legal defence” of the state’s special status and termed it “alarming”.
In a statement issued, Omar also accused the state government of “deliberate callousness”. “(It) indicated the tacit connivance of the PDP in allowing the step-by-step erosion of Article 370 through a series of politically patronised cases and litigation,” he said.
Omar referred to the recent instance of the “bleak surrender by the state government’s counsel in defending the position of the state viz-a-viz the Enforcement of Security Interest Act, enacted by Parliament in 2002 and its implications on the state’s special constitutional character”.
The National Conference leader asked the PDP-BJP coalition government to “come clean on its stand on this vital issue that could have far-reaching implications for the state”.
“The Special Leave Petition challenging the verdict of the Division Bench of the J&K High Court was filed with the required notice being issued to the state government in February,” he said. “The appeal was argued in the honourable Supreme Court by none less than the Attorney General for India, the top law officer of the Union Government. In light of this, two pertinent questions need to be answered by the PDP and its alliance government in the state,” he said.
Omar questioned as to why the Central government was using the “judicial route to subvert certain attributes of the state’s constitutional character” despite the PDP being its ally.
The second question, Omar raised, was why did the state government “fail to come up with an appropriate and serious response considering the sensitivity of this issue”.
PDP prefers to keep mum
Jammu: The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday refrained from speaking on the SC’s judgment that J&K has “no vestige” of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and its own and the citizens of the state are “first and foremost” citizens of India. “We have not gone through the text of the judgment regarding J&K,” said Nizamuddin Bhat, PDP general secretary. TNS
Separatists reject apex court verdict
Srinagar: A loose coalition of separatist leaders in Kashmir on Sunday said it was “outrightly rejecting” the SC’s ruling. They said they would consult legal experts in this regard.
J&K Govt’s weak defence of Art 370 alarming: Omer Abdullah
