Detained By My Own Country For Making Elections A Success, Defeating Pakistan’s Designs: Omar Abdullah

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday featured at the ‘Ideas of India’ summit and said that he had no clue about the abrogation of Article 370 until the “very end of July or beginning of August”. He rued how he was detained for ‘defeating Pakistan’s designs by encouraging voters to come out and vote in elections’.

“When credible or seemingly credible constitutional authorities sitting in Jammu and Kashmir assure you time and again that you have nothing to worry about and that there is no threat to Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional status and then there is no move to tinker with any of the rules or laws concerning Jammu and Kashmir then you take that at face value which is the mistake that we made,” he remarked recollecting the period in run-up to the fateful event.

He recalled how the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, had told J-K leaders that they were “rumour mongering” and told them, “Aap logon ko dara rahe ho (You are scaring people and that there is nothing to worry about and there is no move to do anything to Jammu Kashmir now, of course, he claims he had no idea but I would take that as much of a pinch of salt as I should have his earlier assurances.”

When asked about his detainment, Abdullah mentioned how phone lines and mobile networks were cut off before the Abrogation of Article 370.

“I then was told by one of the people working in my home that I was effectively under house arrest and when I went out of the house and looked to the Gates there with these massive padlocks in place on the gates of the house and I asked my security people and they said ‘Aapko band kiya hai’,” he commented.

Elabourating about the ground for his detainment, the former Jammu-Kashmir CM pointed to a submission in the Supreme Court and said, “They actually detained me for doing what nationalistic India wanted me to do. The grounds for detaining me were that I campaigned against the separatists and that I defeated Pakistan’s designs by encouraging voters to come out and vote in elections and because I was capable of defeating Pakistan’s designs I should therefore today under the Public Safety Act”.

“I was detained by my own country for making elections in India a success now you go figure,” he remarked.

He further mentioned how did not expect the detention to go as long as it did and claimed that “there was no contact with the government” during this period.

‘You Don’t Wish Away Sovereign Commitments Like That’: Omar Abdullah On Article 370

“I understand the politics of Article 370. I understand that its part it was part and parcel of a whole series of election manifestos of the BJP so I understand where they were coming from. But the commitments that were made to Jammu and Kashmir were not made by a political party, they were made by the Union of India with the state of Jammu and Kashmir, to wish those away and to get rid of them in the way they were still is difficult to reconcile oneself with. You don’t wish away sovereign commitments like that,” Abdullah said about the abrogation.

This marks the third edition of the ‘Ideas of India Summit’ hosted by the ABP Network. The two-day long summit intends to dive into ‘The People’s Agenda’ and examine the diversified aspects of the forthcoming elections set to take place in India this year.

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The event is witnessing participation from eminent personalities from several sectors and intends to provide a platform for detailed discussions on the various aspects of Indian society and governance.