Omar views PM Modi's visit to Srinagar as 'a chance missed'

Expressing his disappointment over the much-hyped visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah, quoting from a Hindi idiom, said on Saturday that the latter's visit had turned out to be "Khoda pahad nikli chuhiya".

The people of Kashmir had great expectations from the Prime Minister, he said, adding that he had missed a chance to connect the dots in Kashmir.

"We heard the Prime Minister talking of 'insaniyat', 'jamhuriat', and 'Kashmiriyat' while invoking Vajpayee's formulas for Kashmir," said Abdullah, "but, we didn't hear what we wanted to hear from him."

"Insaniyat is a powerful word, but it is insignificant unless we follow it. Where insaniyat had gone after Dharampur, Dadri, Haryana and Himachal incidents," asked Omar.

He said, "Hundreds of people were arrested to make the Prime Minister's visit a success, where was jamhuriat?"

"The people of Jammu are granted permission to take out rallies with their arms, but in Kashmir, unprecedented methods are used to cull rallies. They have taught a lesson to us on Kashmiriyat in the assembly."

"Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had talked about insaniyat, jamhuriat and Kashmiriyat in view of the then circumstances. He had extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan, said Omar, adding that Vajpayee had sought to solve the Kashmir problem by bringing it under the ambit of humanity.

He criticised Prime Minister Modi for saying that he did not need anybody's suggestion on Kashmir.

Speaking on the financial package announced by the Centre, he said the Kashmir problem could not be solved by way of announcing lucrative packages; it is a political problem and should be solved politically.