Day after holding a Cabinet meeting in Pahalgam, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah conducted a review meeting in Gulmarg, another prominent tourist destination in the state, on Wednesday to send a message that his government is ready to open “Jammu and Kashmir for tourism again”.
The Chief Minister urged the Centre to step in to stop the ‘boycott Kashmir’ campaign saying people of J&K are being punished despite them coming out to condemn the Pahalgam terror attack.
While reiterating that the three power centres — elected government, Raj Bhawan and the Centre — have to work together to ensure such attacks don’t happen again, Omar once again pitched for statehood saying the conversation on the demand has not stopped.
Later in the day, the CM took a ride on a Gondola cable car to Kongdoori in the upper reaches of Gulmarg.
“A message should go from here that we are opening and Kashmir for tourism again,” Omar said, talking to the reporters after the meeting. “It is obvious that after the 22nd April, everything came to a halt. People should come here again, for this I held a Cabinet meeting in Pahalgam yesterday (Tuesday) and a meeting of administrative secretaries in Gulmarg today (Wednesday). Our effort is to create a buzz at least, create publicity”.
Omar said he has asked the Education minister to bring the schoolchildren to Gulmarg and Pahalgam for picnics so that “we start to move towards normalcy”.
Omar, once again, batted for re-opening of the tourist destinations that were closed for the tourists and the locals after the Pahalgam attack. “I know, we were forced to take such steps,” he said. “But if we have to see the revival of tourism, we will have to slowly review this (decision)”.
The UT government had issued several circulars barring the valley schools from going to picnic spots on weekdays and allowed on other days only after seeking permission from the government, which has created anger in the Valley.
Responding to a question of ‘Kashmir boycott’ calls from certain quarters, Omar said the Centre must step in to stop it. “There is a big difference between the earlier attacks and this (Pahalgam) attack. This time the people spontaneously came out and condemned it. No political, social or religious leader can claim credit for this (spontaneous protests in J&K over the Pahalgam incident),” Omar said.
“Even after this, if you punish them, call for a boycott, forgive me, who will come out to condemn, if god forbid, such an attack happens again. Even after condemning this, if we are still seen as being responsible, what can we do? The Central government shouldn’t ignore it, they should use their agencies to stop this campaign,” Omar said.
He, however, said that the demand for the return of statehood has not stopped.
“If you see the formal speech that was circulated in the NITI Ayog meeting, you will see a categorical mention of the return of statehood. The conversation on statehood has not been stalled,” he said. “The only thing is that I was unwilling to use the special session of the Assembly to ask for statehood but that doesn’t mean the conversation has stopped”.
At Gulmarg, Omar reviewed the performance of different departments. Besides the cabinet ministers, the meeting was attended by top civil and police officers.
At the meeting, Omar told the officers that during the NITI Ayog meeting, he urged the Centre that the meetings of parliamentary consultative committee, parliamentary standing committee and that of public sector undertakings should be held in J&K to help revive tourism. Some of the Union ministers gave a positive response to his appeal, he said.
