National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday abandoned his usual restraint and threatened to move the Supreme Court against the delay in the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood as he tore into the Centre over the alleged security lapses in the Pahalgam attack.
Farooq's all-out attack marks a departure from his party's earlier stance, espoused by his son Omar, that it would not politicise the Pahalgam carnage by using it to pressurise Delhi into restoring statehood.
The Centre's apathy towards restoring statehood, coupled with the limited power of the elected government in the Union Territory, seems to have stretched the NC's patience thin.
Farooq said the people had great expectations from the new government. “People wanted their issues to be resolved immediately after the elections, but (not restoring) statehood is stopping us,” he told reporters in Kokernag after a meeting with party workers. "They have many demands like they want him (NC MLA Altaf Kaloo) to become a minister, but how is this possible till statehood is restored?”
The absence of statehood puts lots of curbs on the government, including its power to expand the ministry. “We are waiting, but if they take a long time, then we will have to go to the Supreme Court,” he said.
During his address to party workers, the former chief minister wondered how militants managed to reach Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam and kill 26 people.
"A week before (the attack), they (Centre) said we have ended militancy here, weeded them out of the soil. Then, where did they come from? We have so many forces, so many drones here. Where did those four (attackers) come from?” he asked.
“We have not been able to find them. We say that we are a powerful nation now and there is no match to us, but we cannot find those four,” he said.