"J&K Faces Existential Threat": Omar Abdullah On Article 370 Scrapping

Mr Abdullah is contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election from J&K's Baramulla seat, which was won by his National Conference's Mohammad Akbar Lone in 2019.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir face a "threat to our very existence because of the removal of Article 370 (J&K's special status was scrapped in 2019)", National Conference leader Omar Abdullah told NDTV Tuesday, a day after voting in Srinagar in the fourth phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Mr Abdullah - contesting from J&K's Baramulla seat, which votes next week - called the centre's scrapping of Article 370 an "existential challenge" to the people of the former state, and said, "This is an election after we lost our constitutional safeguards... we (now) face a threat to our very existence because the removal of Article 370 removed protections (regarding) our identity, land, and jobs."

Article 370, revoked by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the centre, offered constitutional safeguards to J&K natives, including restrictions on jobs and sale of land. It was removed, the government argued in Parliament, to facilitate development in the former state.