Srinagar, Aug 17: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday played down the BJP’s protest against his government in Jammu, saying political parties were entitled to express their differences, while sharply criticising what he described as the Centre’s growing interference in matters belonging to the states.
Asked about the BJP’s protest in Jammu against the National Conference-led government, Abdullah said there was little for him to respond to.
“They have a difference of opinion. This is what they have to do,” he said. “Okay? They did it. What else?”
Abdullah, however, used the discussion to make a broader argument for greater space for states, saying issues such as education and health fall within the states’ domain and should not be increasingly centralised.
“This is not just about Jharkhand,” he said, referring to the ongoing student protests there. “These matters, whether it is education or health, in the devolution of powers, these are State issues. They feature in the State List.”
The Chief Minister said the weakening of states could not be attributed to the BJP alone, arguing that successive governments at the Centre, including the Congress-led UPA, had contributed to the trend.
“This fault is not just the BJP’s,” Abdullah said. “Different central governments have played a role in weakening the states.”
He cited the centralisation of the NEET examination system as an example, arguing that greater central control had also altered the chain of accountability.
“So, if NEET had not been centralised, Dharmendra Pradhan would not have had to resign,” Abdullah said. “Because examinations would have been conducted at the state level. If there had been a scam in a state, the minister of that state would have been responsible.”
He said the Centre should confine itself to matters falling within its jurisdiction and leave state subjects to elected state governments.
“Leave matters that belong to the states with the states. Let the Centre handle matters that belong to the Centre,” Abdullah said.
“This habit the Centre has developed of interfering in the states is the reason Dharmendra Pradhan had to lose his job. Let us do our work; let them do theirs.”
The remarks come amid renewed political friction between the J&K government and the BJP, which has stepped up its criticism of the National Conference-led administration in Jammu.
On the controversy over Vande Mataram at the Independence Day ceremony, Abdullah sought to play down the issue, saying the change in the ceremony’s sequence was new even to him.
“This was my eighth Independence Day parade. But this was the first time Vande Mataram was included,” he said.
Abdullah said it took him some time to understand the revised sequence, under which Vande Mataram preceded the flag unfurling and the national anthem.
“It took me some time too to understand that first I would stand there, then Vande Mataram would be played, then I would unfurl the flag, and then there would be the national anthem,” he said. “Perhaps Congress also needed some time to adjust.”
Asked about criticism over a statement supporting Article 370 that was described as reflecting a “Naxalite mindset”, Abdullah refused to comment on the social-media posts.
“Why are you asking me to explain and speak about what she tweets?” he said. “It is her Twitter account; her daughter runs it. Let her tweet whatever she likes.”
On the protests in Jharkhand, Abdullah backed the continuation of talks with the students, saying legitimate grievances should be addressed through dialogue.
“If the students’ demands are legitimate, if they are valid, then somewhere or the other, they should sit down with them and talk,” he said.
He added that if the government believed the demands were baseless, it should say so clearly.
“If they are not, then say directly that there is no weight or truth in their demands and that there will be no talks with them,” he said.
But the decision to hold a second round of talks, he argued, indicated that the protesters’ concerns could not simply be dismissed.
“If you have already held one round of talks and are saying there will be a second round, then somewhere their demands must have some truth in them,” Abdullah said.
