SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday asserted that not a single Kashmiri Pandit employee recruited under the Prime Minister’s package is homeless in Kashmir and defended the playing of the full rendition of Vande Mataram at government functions, saying the government is bound to fulfil its legal and statutory obligations.
Omar was responding to two separate controversies — the ongoing protest by PM Package employees over transit accommodation in Srinagar and the row over the playing of the full version of Vande Mataram at the inaugural ceremony of the International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir at SKICC on September 7.
On the accommodation issue, Omar said the government had accelerated the construction of 6,000 transit flats and that no employee had been left without a roof over their head.
He said a large number of flats had already been allotted, while the remaining units were being completed in phases.
His remarks came after PM Package employees set September 30 as the deadline for allotment of pending accommodation and threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike. The employees have also raised security concerns following alleged threat posters.
On the Vande Mataram row, Omar said government functions had to adhere to protocol after J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra objected to the playing of all six stanzas of the national song at the film festival, where Omar and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah stood at attention.
Omar said government protocol had to be kept separate from political party ideology.
“NC has a clear stand. When Parliament has adopted it, playing Vande Mataram becomes a statutory obligation and that is what government did. We have to fulfil our legal and statutory duties,” he said.
The National Conference also hit back at the Congress, pointing to instances of full renditions of Vande Mataram at official events in Congress-ruled states, including Karnataka.
The BJP welcomed Omar and Farooq Abdullah standing through the full rendition of the song, while the Congress has maintained its position based on the party’s historic 1937 resolution to sing only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram in the interest of communal harmony. (GNS)
