BJP launches protest against Omar for accession remark

JAMMU - The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) here Tuesday called for a “sustained” agitation against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his “uncalled for” remarks on the accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

The party has called for ‘Jammu bandh’ or shutdown Nov 8, when the seat of the state government shifts to winter capital Jammu. It has planned a calendar of protests against the chief minister.

The party has taken strong exception to Abdullah questioning the status of Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian union, despite the last Dogra king, Maharaja Hari Singh, having signed the same instrument of accession that other princely states had signed while acceding to India.

“It is unfortunate that the chief minister, who owes his position to the constitution that clearly states that ‘Jammu and Kashmir is and shall remain integral part of India’, has chosen to raise doubts about it,” BJP’s state unit president Shamsher Singh Manhas said at a press conference here.

“We will begin with a Jammu bandh on November 8 and thereafter we will organise more protests,” Manhas said.

Abdullah had said in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly that the state had only acceded to and not merged with the Union of India and could not be compared to Junagarh and Hyderabad, triggering outrage from the BJP.