Omar Abdullah said his 232-day detention period has made him “bitter”, “resentful” and “angry” but it won’t change his time-tested stand that Jammu and Kashmir “is an integral part of India”.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah says in a new book that he will neither be “Indian enough for right-wing nationalist politicians” nor “Kashmiri enough for those who don’t see Kashmir’s future as part of India”.
It is therefore best to be true to oneself, Mr Abdullah said in the recently launched “India Tomorrow: Conversations with the Next Generation of Political Leaders”.
Mr Abdullah was detained when the government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 and bifurcated the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh on August 5 last year.
He said his 232-day detention period has made him “bitter”, “resentful” and “angry” but it won’t change his time-tested stand that Jammu and Kashmir “is an integral part of India”.
“Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. As much as I would like to say that my detention and the circumstances of the 5th of August have caused me to shift my thinking on that, it hasn’t,” he said.