"Had Vajpayee's J&K Approach Been Adopted...." Omar Abdullah's Tribute

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said had the ruling BJP at the Centre adopted former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's approach, Jammu and Kashmir would not have been in the current situation.

Speaking during obituary references in J-K Legislative Assembly, Mr Abdullah heaped praises on the former prime minister, saying Vajpayee "always tried to improve the situation in J-K".

When Vajpayee went to Pakistan in 1999 on the maiden Delhi-Lahore bus, he had visited Minar-e-Pakistan which "was not easy to do", the chief minister said.

"Then he stood at the border and said we can change friends but not the neighbours. Vajpayee said dialogue was the only way out. He repeatedly extended hand of friendship despite facing setbacks," Abdullah, the Leader of the House, added.

"I have known him (Vajpayee) and worked with him as a minister in his council. When we remember Vajpayee, we remember him with reference to J-K. He always tried to improve the situation in J-K, he tried to ease the tension," he said.

"He worked to open the cross-LoC routes which were later closed again. He wanted to bring people across closer. He tried to bring the civil society closer. Today attempts are made to keep us apart," Mr Abdullah added.

The chief minister said had Vajpayee's approach been adopted, Jammu and Kashmir would not have been "in the situation it is in".

"After he left, his approach was forgotten. The design he had given was forgotten. What can we do?" he said.

Referring to MLA Kulgam M Y Tarigami's remarks about the autonomy resolution brought by the then NC government in the assembly in 2000,Mr  Abdullah said while it is true that the resolution was sent back, but "Vajpayee realised it later that the government had reacted in a hurry".

"So, he appointed senior minister Arun Jaitley to hold talks with J-K government on it," the Chief Minister said, adding it would be difficult to disagree with Vajpayee's intentions on J-K.

The Leader of the House said the list for obituary references was huge which indicated "how long the gap was between our two sessions".

He said the last such session was held in 2018.

"57 personalities -- former president, former prime minister, former governor, ex-MLAs and ex-MLCs are in the list. This will perhaps be the last time we will be paying tributes to people from Ladakh as they are no more a part of us," he added.

Mr Abdullah also said there were 45 people in the list with whom he has worked or were known to him, and went on to mention a few.

Paying tributes to Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Abdullah said there was a lot to learn from the former president's life.

"Mukherjee did not have Godfathers and was not parachuted into politics. He worked hard," he said, adding that he did justice with all the posts he held.

The Leader of the House also paid tributes to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and others, including his former colleague and BJP leader Devendra Singh Rana who died last week.

Speaking of Rana, he said, "If there is one colleague I was sad about losing, it was Rana. In the election heat, we said bitter things. But, I did not know he was so ill. Had I known, I would have tried to improve our relations." He also recalled his close political association with the deceased Nagrota MLA over 20 years and hailed him for fulfilling all his responsibilities, both in National Conference and the BJP, with dedication.

The chief minister said all the 56 persons named in the obituary list have done something in serving the people and "we should go through their biographies so that we can learn from them".

After his speech, the House observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)