Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said a recent meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah has kept his hopes alive that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would be restored soon, inadvertently bringing into sharp relief the irony that the Centre’s promise remained elusive as his government completed six months in office on Tuesday.

Asked about the Centre’s claim that statehood would be restored at an appropriate time, Omar said: “It is six months after the Assembly elections (and the time is appropriate now). But recently, the home minister had come to Srinagar and Jammu. I spoke with him separately. It was a good meeting. I am still hopeful that statehood will be restored very soon.”

Omar assumed office on October 16, 2024.

Omar’s National Conference had come to power by promising to fight for the restoration of Article 370. The irony is that his party seems reluctant to take on the BJP over its alleged anti-Muslim policies.

Speaker and NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather recently disallowed an adjournment motion seeking a debate on the Centre’s Waqf Amendment Act.

Omar on Tuesday gave a twist to the controversy by claiming that the legislators who sought the adjournment motion were wrong.

“The waqf bill was not brought by us. It was passed by the central government in Parliament. What answer would the J&K government have given (if the motion was admitted)?” he asked.

PDP leader Iltija Mufti said J&K’s struggle was never about the restoration of statehood. “We are a people who had our own Constitution and flag. Reducing our aspirations to statehood alone is an insult to our history,” she said.