Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday took a jibe at the Election Commission, sarcastically suggesting that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) should be awarded the Bharat Ratna and later made the President of India.
Speaking on the sidelines of the J&K International Buyer-Seller Meet in Srinagar, Abdullah also spoke about the Election Commission, the recently concluded autumn session of the J&K Assembly and his government’s recent initiatives. He added, “Now, instead of trying to hide it, I feel the Election Commission should reform its functioning and ensure that such allegations and actions do not occur. Abdullah described the autumn session of the J&K Assembly as a success for the Treasury Benches, saying the government had not expected the session to be as productive as it was.
But when the opportunity to corner us came, they weren’t even present in the House,” he said. Abdullah said the BJP had an opportunity to hold the government accountable over its two-year performance during the discussion on the Statehood Bill but did not participate. He said key legislation concerning ease of doing business and decriminalisation had also been passed. Speaking about changes in Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said not all changes were necessarily positive and said his government was trying to “rectify” the changes in the Union Territory.
“It was very fruitful for us. I cannot speak for the Opposition, but I will talk about the Treasury Benches. We weren’t expecting such a fruitful session for us. “The BJP had a good opportunity on the Statehood Bill to hold us accountable for the performance record of the last two years. They didn’t participate, and our resolution on Statehood was passed,” he stated.
Before the session, we were being threatened that ‘Sir, we will take the government to task in the assembly, we will corner them, we will do this, we will do that.
