Earlier this month, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sham Lal Sharma, called for a separate state of Jammu to be carved out of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP was quick to distance itself from Sharma’s statement, describing it as his individual opinion.
But the comment appears to have touched a nerve in the Valley.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was one of the first to respond. “They separated Ladakh and ruined it completely,” Abdullah told reporters. “Now, if they want to separate Jammu and ruin it as well, let them do it.”
Six years ago, the Narendra Modi government had cancelled Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and unilaterally downgraded the erstwhile state into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Abdullah was referring to the growing discontent in Ladakh after being turned into a union territory without legislature in 2019.
However, Sajad Lone, the president of Peoples Conference, went ahead and backed the demand for separate administrations for Jammu and Kashmir, the first political leader from the Valley to call for such a split.
“Maybe the time has come for an amicable divorce,” he said in a statement. “It is not only about developmental matters. Jammu has become the proverbial stick to beat the Kashmiri with....
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