Move beyond law varsity demand, press for J&K’s statehood, Omar’s NC tells BJP

JAMMU: J&K’s governing National Conference (NC) on Monday urged BJP to move beyond demands for a National Law University (NLU) in Jammu and instead press the Centre to restore statehood to the Union territory.

Surinder Choudhary, deputy chief minister in the Omar Abdullah-led govt, accused BJP of raising the NLU issue as part of its claims about discrimination against Jammu while remaining silent on larger concerns.

“They (BJP) wake up every morning and start shouting that the Omar govt is discriminating against Jammu,” NC’s Choudhary said on the opening day of the J&K assembly’s 27-day budget session in Jammu.

J&K has no NLU at present but the demand for it to be located in Jammu gained traction after CM Omar said last year that it would come up in Kashmir’s Budgam. Omar has rejected the recent BJP demands, calling the controversy “politically motivated” and pointing out that there were no protests in the Valley when Jammu was given both an IIT and an IIM.

Deputy CM Choudhary stressed that J&K faced far more pressing issues than NLU and accused BJP of abandoning its promise of restoring statehood. “Why is he not asking the Centre to fulfil the promise of statehood,” Choudhary said. He was referring to Sunil Sharma, BJP leader of opposition who joined students’ protests at Jammu University over the NLU.

A legislator from Jammu’s Nowshera, Choudhary rejected allegations of discrimination, arguing the NC govt would not have revived the “Darbar Move” after four years if that was the case.

In June 2021, LG Sinha’s administration ended the Darbar Move, a 149-year-old practice of shifting the seat of govt between Srinagar and Jammu every six months. Sinha described the system as “a big racket”. Before its abolition, over 10,000 state employees shuttled between the two cities twice a year, boosting trade and commerce in Jammu. The Omar-led govt resumed it this year after demands from Jammu’s traders, who said its suspension had hurt business.

Referring to the NLU demand, deputy CM Choudhary flagged “lack of statehood” as the biggest issue, leading to local jobs being taken away by “outsiders”. “BJP has a habit of sitting on roads and accusing the govt of discrimination. But they don’t look at Jammu University, where not a single vice-chancellor has been from Jammu. Are our professors from Jammu not capable of leading the university? But BJP will not talk about it,” Choudhary said.

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