Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that the Union and state governments cannot function in silos and that the Union Territory model is not suitable for Jammu and Kashmir.
Abdullah said the year so far has certainly been challenging.
“Answer by any metric if you want to evaluate the year, it was a tough year,” Abdullah said in an interview with Sunetra Choudhary, national political editor of the Hindustan Times.
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Abdullah assumed the office of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2024. It was the first election to be held in the union territory since the abrogation of Article 370 and after more than a decade.
It’s been a tough year: Omar
The National Conference leader recalled the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 tourists, the recent blast near Delhi’s Red Fort that killed at least 10 people and the tension caused by these attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
“By any measure, if you want to evaluate the year, it was a difficult one from the security paradigm point of view. The Baisaran attack at the beginning of the year and ended the year with the Delhi blast, which came from a conspiracy hatched in Jammu and Kashmir coupled with a very difficult economic environment,” Abdullah said.
“The immediate change after Baisaran has completely reoriented our economy. We have never been a very strong economy in the first place and these circumstances have made it even more difficult,” said the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister.
About domestic terrorism
Asked about the return of home-grown terrorism in India, Abdullah said that aspect never went away.
Abdullah’s remarks come in the wake of recent terror attacks in India, starting with the April 2025 Pahalgam attack to the more recent Red Fort blast in November 2025.
The Chief Minister said that governments in India and states cannot work in silos.
On the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir
“You cannot have an elected government that is completely exempt from security-related decisions,” Abdullah said, adding that the union territory model was not working for J&K.
Jammu and Kashmir was a state until August 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated and the state was divided into two union territories – J&K and Ladakh.
Omar’s party, the National Conference, is demanding the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
In the INDIA block
With the recent loss in Bihar, Abdullah said the INDIA bloc is currently on “life support”.
Abdullah said the INDIA bloc literally pushed Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United chief Nitish Kumar into the National Democratic Alliance. Abdullah said that Nitish was supposed to be the convener of the INDIA bloc in one of the first meetings of the bloc ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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Kumar, who has been in the NDA since January 2024, was earlier part of the opposition INDIA bloc.
“If you’re a bloc, you have to take a holistic view,” Abdullah said.
On BJP as an election machine
Abdullah also mentioned the electoral strategy of the Bhartiya Janata Party and how the saffron party takes every election seriously.
“They are fighting the election as if their lives depend on it,” Abdullah said.
Kudos to FM
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman praised Omar Abdullah and the elected government’s efforts to revive the economy of Jammu and Kashmir.
“I have to credit the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who of course met me twice in that he wanted and was focused on getting the economy back after tourism, a serious impact on tourism and stopped, tourism stopped,” Sitharaman said.
You cannot have an elected government that is completely excluded from security related decisions.
Reacting to the praise, Abdullah said it was “kind” of the union minister to praise him but called for a better budget for the union territory.
“That’s very kind of her, another part of that would be madam, please show me the money because it’s in short supply,” Abdullah said, adding that the Center has been very helpful to UT.
On the vote Chori
Abdullah said that unlike his father Farooq Abdullah, he did not believe that EVMs could be tampered with. However, he said he believed elections could be rigged in India.
“I have never been a supporter of those who say that the machines are rigged,” said Abdullah; however, “elections can be manipulated in other ways.”
Referring to the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the 2024 assembly elections, Abdullah said the creation of seven new constituencies in the union territory had raised concerns.
“The easiest way to do this is to manipulate the electoral roll or redrawing the constituencies,” he added in defense of Rahul Gandhi’s recent claims.
Key things
- Chief Minister Omar Abdullah finds the Union Territory model for Jammu and Kashmir ineffective.
- Recent attacks have significantly affected the region’s security and economy.
- The need for cohesive governance between the Union and state governments is emphasized.
