‘I had a demotion’: Omar Abdullah rakes up statehood issue; says LG got promoted | India News

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday brought up the issue of the restoration of statehood to the Union territory, at the flagging-off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Vande Bharat Express between Srinagar and the pilgrim town of Katra.“If you see, by the blessings of Mata (Vaishno Devi), lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha has got a promotion and I had a demotion. I was chief minister of a state and now I of the Union territory. However, I believe that it will not take long to rectify it …. Jammu and Kashmir will again get the statehood under your (PM Modi’s) watch only,” Abdullah said, according to news agency PTI.The erstwhile state was reorganised into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The National Conference vice-president had a previous stint as chief minister when Jammu and Kashmir was a state, and is the first chief minister of the now-Union territory.Abdullah, who shared the stage with PM Modi, Union minister Jeetendra Singh and LG Sinha, also recalled the inauguration of the Katra railway station, an event which was attended by the same set of people.“There are four persons on this stage who were present at the inauguration of the Katra railway station (in 2014). You (PM Modi) had just won the election, becoming the prime minister for the first time. MoS in PMO Jeetendra Singh was present then and our LG Manoj Sinha sahib was discharging duties as MoS Railways and I was here as chief minister,” he stated.On Vande Bharat, Abdullah said many people have dreamt of seeing a train chugging into Kashmir.“Even the British had dreamt of connecting Kashmir by train but they did not succeed. Their plan was to bring rail from Uri, along the banks of Jhelum, to connect with the country. What the British could not achieve has happened at your (PM Modi’s) hands and Kashmir has been connected to the rest of the country,” he added.