SOURCE: UNI
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was to be formalized through a “plebiscite.” In an interview to News 18, Omar said, “If Article 370 was considered temporary and transitional, then Jammu and Kashmir’s accession with India was also subject to similar scrutiny.”
He criticized the unilateral abrogation of Article 370, stating, “It was scrapped without taking the people of Jammu and Kashmir on board. We had no role to play in it.”
He further elaborated that the accession of J&K was meant to be formalized through a plebiscite.
“A permanent provision could not be inserted into the Constitution for a region whose permanent status was yet to be determined. Over time, we agreed that the accession was permanent and needed no ratification. But the framework that guaranteed this accession also needed to be permanent,” he said. “You called the framework temporary and the accession permanent…!”