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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah responded sharply to BJP Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma's “Swear on Quran” challenge regarding alleged alliance talks with the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Sharma had dared Abdullah to take an oath on the Quran to prove he hadn’t gone to Delhi to seek a tie-up with the BJP for the sake of restoring statehood.

“Go to a mosque or a religious place, hold the Quran in your hand, and swear that you did not go to Delhi to form the government,” Sharma had said.

Replying on X, J-K CM Abdullah posted on X on Sunday and stated that he does not tell lies for a living, unlike Sharma.

"I swear on the Holy Quran that I didn't seek an alliance with the BJP in 2024 for Statehood or for any other reason. Unlike Sunil Sharma, I don't tell lies for a living," Abdullah said.

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CM Omar Abdullah has been very vocal about the issue of statehood. However, the opposition has criticised the J&K Chief Minister, accusing him of using the statehood issue as an excuse to avoid focusing on governance. There has been a demand for statehood in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370.

On 5 August 2019, the Centre scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without a legislature).

On September 7, 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that only the central government and Prime Minister Modi have the authority to grant statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and it will be given at an "appropriate time".

"Congress and the National Conference are saying they will restore statehood. Tell me who can give it? It is only the Central government, PM Modi, who can give it. So stop fooling the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We have said that at an appropriate time after the elections, we will give statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. We have said this in Parliament... Rahul Gandhi should stop misleading the people of Jammu and Kashmir," Shah said.

Earlier in October this year, Omar Abdullah said that the Centre-led BJP government should categorically state that the restoration of the statehood is dependent on their coming to power in the Union Territory.

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"The BJP, in its manifesto or in its promises to Parliament and to the Supreme Court, never said that statehood is dependent on the BJP coming to power in Jammu and Kashmir. If that is the case, I think the BJP should be honest that so long as there is a non-BJP government, you will not get statehood," Abdullah said while addressing a press conference.

Following the first year anniversary of the National Conference (NC) government in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, CM Omar Abdullah had asserted that the solution to all of Jammu and Kashmir's problems lies in restoring statehood.

( With ANI Inputs )

 

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