Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party leader Waheed Para on Friday said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah owed an apology to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for not keeping the promises he made during the assembly election campaign last year.
“Omar Abdullah owes an apology, not a signature campaign, for normalising 5th August. With 50 MLAs behind him, he has reduced the fight for J-K’s statehood to token gestures, after seeking votes door-to-door on the promise of restoring pre-“5th August status,” Para said in an X post.
The PDP leader said Abdullah’s signature campaign was not just a retreat but betrayal.
“This is not just retreat, it is betrayal. The people gave him a historic mandate to fight for Article 370 and statehood, not to stage political theatre. If he has already surrendered, he must admit it and apologise to every citizen of J-K for selling promises he never intended to keep,” he added.
Earlier in a fiery Independence Day speech at Bakshi stadium here, Omar Abdullah said he took a big political risk when he took a stand that Jammu and Kashmir will get whatever it needs from India’s democracy and that nothing can be achieved through a confrontation with the Centre.
“Probably, I have paid a political price for it,” he said.