The Kashmir Pulse

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday criticised the Election Commission over its handling of electoral roll revision and said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar should be given the Bharat Ratna and made President after two years.

Omar was responding to questions from reporters about BJP remarks that Kumar should be considered for the Padma Bhushan.

“Why should he stay there? Give him Bharat Ratna. How many years are left? Two years are left for the election of the President. Make him the President,” Omar said.

He said the Election Commission should review its functioning amid the allegations being raised against it. “The Election Commission should do some soul-searching. It is not as if all the opposition parties are against the Election Commission. No political party has brought the evidence. The evidence has come forward through the investigation of the newspaper,” he said.

“Instead of trying to hide it, I think the Election Commission should improve its work. We should try to avoid such allegations,” Omar added.

The chief minister also accused the Election Commission of favouring the BJP in West Bengal. “They have done so much for the BJP. They gave West Bengal to the BJP as a gift,” he said.

His remarks came amid a wider political dispute over the functioning of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The Commission has maintained that its decisions and electoral-roll processes have followed the prescribed legal framework and has defended the institutional process behind the SIR exercise.

Omar backs improved India-China ties

Asked about External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s remarks that India-China relations were better in 2026 than in 2024-25, Omar said the minister was “not wrong”.

“Where are those relations that were not visible after Galwan? People were being told to throw Chinese TVs from their balconies. Today, we are not only meeting each other, but also talking to each other. And this is how it should be,” he said.

Omar said better relations with neighbouring countries and other nations were in India’s interest. “We have always said that the better our relations are with our neighbours and other countries, the better it is for us,” he said.

“If our relations are good with countries like China, it is good for the country,” he added. He said India had strained relations with several other countries, including some in its neighbourhood, but declined to name them.

“But not only China, there are many other countries with which our relations are not good. In our neighbourhood, Bangladesh, there are many other countries, which we can talk about, but I will not name them because you will start jumping on that topic,” Omar said.

Jaishankar had said on Monday that India-China ties were better compared with a couple of years earlier, citing an improvement in bilateral engagement.

Omar calls Assembly session fruitful

On the ongoing Assembly session, Omar described the proceedings as “very fruitful” for the government but declined to comment on the Opposition’s assessment.

“It has been very fruitful for us. I cannot talk about the opposition. I will talk about the treasury benches. We were not expecting that it would be such a fruitful session for us,” he said.

Omar said the government had faced statements before the session that it would be challenged in the House but alleged that the BJP did not remain present when it had an opportunity to question the government.

“Before the session, we were being threatened that we will take the government by force in the Assembly, that we will do this, we will do that. But when we got the opportunity to do that, they did not stay in the House,” he said.

He said the BJP had an opportunity during the debate on the statehood resolution to question the government’s record over the previous two years but did not participate.

“The BJP had a good opportunity on the statehood bill to ask us for an answer on the record of the last two years. They did not take part. And our statehood resolution was passed,” Omar said.

The Assembly passed the statehood resolution on Monday amid protests and a walkout by BJP legislators.

Omar also said bills concerning ease of doing business and decriminalisation had been passed during the session. “Today, the important bills that I wanted to pass, especially on the ease of doing business and decriminalisation, were also passed,” he said.

The chief minister said the final day of the session would include discussion on a report concerning the Jal Shakti Department.

“Tomorrow is the last day. The report that has been made on the Jal Shakti Department, tomorrow there will be a discussion on that and the House’s proceedings will be over,” he said.

On pensioners’ bill and legislators’ salaries

Asked about the pensioners’ bill, Omar said it had been passed but the issue of legislators’ salaries remained unresolved. “No, the pensioners’ bill was passed, but our salaries were not paid,” he said.

He said there had been pressure from different parties over the issue and referred to a letter signed by almost all BJP members seeking a salary hike.

“I don’t know if my party colleagues shared it with you or not. Look at that letter, in which there are signatures of almost all honourable members of the BJP asking for a salary hike,” he said.

“This is their habit. They want a salary and also want to do politics. I will not allow them to do that,” Omar added.

The remarks came as the Assembly session entered its final day, with the government and Opposition continuing to differ over electoral issues, statehood and other matters.

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Law Secretary Achal Sethi separately approached the Legislative Assembly Secretariat seeking that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s resolution on restoration of statehood not be taken up, triggering a row over the role of the bureaucracy in the functioning of the elected House.

The communications were sent three days after Abdullah moved the resolution, which had subsequently been admitted for consideration by the Assembly. The officials cited the matter being sub judice and sought that the resolution be disallowed, according to reports.

Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather questioned the intervention, saying he was not aware of any precedent in which government officials had written to the Assembly Secretariat seeking to prevent legislative business from being taken up.

Rather also questioned the fact that the communications had been sent without the approval of the minister concerned.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who also holds the Law portfolio, said he had no prior knowledge of the Law Department’s communication and learned about the matter only after being informed by the Assembly Secretariat.

“Speaker sir, I'm the Law Minister and also Chief Minister but I have no knowledge of my bureaucracy sending an opinion to you on my resolution. I do not know on whose instructions it was sent,” Abdullah said during the Assembly proceedings.

Questioning how officials could issue an opinion against a resolution moved by the Chief Minister and Law Minister without his knowledge, Abdullah linked the episode to Jammu and Kashmir’s present status as a Union Territory.

“Can this happen in any state, where the chief minister moves a resolution and its own bureaucracy acts against it? This can happen only in a Union Territory,” he said.

The issue also drew a reaction from National Conference MLA and party chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq, who questioned how senior bureaucrats could approach the Assembly Speaker seeking to stop a resolution moved by the elected Chief Minister without the knowledge of the concerned minister.

In a social media post, Sadiq said the episode raised questions about accountability to the people and argued that the development itself highlighted the need for restoration of statehood.

The controversy unfolded as the Assembly took up discussion on Abdullah’s resolution seeking the immediate and urgent restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

The resolution was subsequently passed by the Assembly amid protests and a walkout by BJP legislators. The BJP had objected to references in the resolution to earlier Assembly resolutions, including the June 26, 2000 autonomy resolution.

The episode has brought renewed attention to the institutional relationship between the elected government, the Legislative Assembly and the bureaucracy under Jammu and Kashmir’s present Union Territory framework.

The resolution’s passage means that the Assembly has formally conveyed its demand for restoration of full statehood to the Government of India, while the controversy over the bureaucratic communications has added another dimension to the ongoing statehood debate.

SHOPIAN — A man died after reportedly falling from a walnut tree in the Kazapathri area of Shadab Karewa in Shopian district, officials said.

The man was initially shifted to District Hospital (DH) Shopian for treatment following the incident.

In view of his critical condition, he was subsequently referred to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar.

He reportedly succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

The deceased was identified as Muhammad Rafiq Sheikh of Kazapathri, Shadab Karewa.