Omar Abdullah says had Vajpayee been alive, J&K wouldn’t be a UT [Video]

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the erstwhile state would not have been downgraded to a Union Territory had the road map of former Prime Minister, late Atal Bihari Vajpayee been followed.

Speaking during the obituary references in the legislative Assembly, Omar Abdullah said that J&K would not have been downgraded to a UT had late Vajpayee’s strategy on Kashmir been followed.

CM Omar recalled that after the then Assembly passed a resolution for greater autonomy to J&K, which New Delhi had rejected during Vajpayee’s prime ministership, “Vajpayee realised his mistake and then he designated the then law minister to engage in a dialogue with the state government on the subject. But, as providence would have it, he passed away and that was it.”

“What should I say about late Vajpayee? He was a great visionary. Vajpayee was a towering personality, who started the Lahore bus and went to Minar-e-Pakistan.

“He always tried to build …