Omar becomes first elected CM to unfurl tricolour on I-Day in J&K UT, says no major announcement came from Delhi

SRINAGAR: Omar Abdullah on Friday became the first elected Chief Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory to unfurl the tricolour and preside over the main Independence Day function in Srinagar. He said no major announcement came on the day from Delhi. Omar, who took over as the first Chief Minister of J&K UT in October last year, unfurled the tricolour at the main I-Day function at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar. The CM was presented with a guard of honour before inspecting the contingents taking part in the parade. He also took the salute during the march past at the low-key Independence Day celebrations, held in the wake of the cloudburst tragedy in Kishtwar in which 46 people have been killed and dozens are still missing. On 5 August 2019, the Centre scrapped J&Ks special status and downgraded and bifurcated the erstwhile J&K state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without a legislature). Since 2020, the Lieutenant Governor had been unfurling the tricolour on I-Day in J&K. After the fall of the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government in June 2018, then Governor, the late Satyapal Malik, unfurled the tricolour for two years, August 15, 2018, and August 15, 2019. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was the last Chief Minister of the erstwhile J&K state to preside over the I-Day function in Srinagar in 2017. In his I-Day address, Omar said over six years had passed since the people of J&K last heard their representative address them from the venue. It has been 11 years since I last spoke from this platform as Chief Minister of a state, he said. In these 1011 years, a lot has changed. When I was standing here last time, I was CM of the J&K state, in this country we had our own identity, we had a special status, we had our own flag and our own constitution. Today, none of those remain. Today, we dont even have statehood, he said. From Sudarshan Chakra defence system to demographic mission: Key takeaways from PM Modis I-Day speech The CM said that to regain democracy, we had to wait for a long time. Why were we made to wait for so long for democracy? We have got no answers to that question. But better late than never! Today, at least people have their own government and people have voted overwhelmingly to elect the government, he said. Omar said he had thought a lot about how his August 15 speech would be and in which manner I would talk to the people of J&K. What will be the atmosphere and what words will I use? One thing I knew was that there was very little scope for a routine and normal speech. I had no intention to read the written speech given by the government because if I would have read it, maybe the people of J&K would have thought there was no need for change, he said. Some of our friends and well-wishers used to tell me that there will be change this year... this year there will be an announcement... you wait. On August 15, there will be a big announcement from Delhi for J&K. Although the truth is that there was not much hope, it is also a fact that when people keep hearing the same thing again and again, somewhere in their heart in a small corner one thing settles. We very impatiently waited for the August 15 speech (of PM Modi). And we waited and felt that in one corner of the speech, there will be a big announcement for J&K... even this thing was told to me, that papers are ready and now it is a matter of time and you wait... we waited and it did not happen. We had a bit of hope that on August 15, there will be a major announcement for J&K. I was even told that papers were being prepared (for statehood). We waited, but nothing happened, Omar added.