Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at Abdullah, stating that the Congress-ally was trying to turn back the clock to 1953 when Jammu and Kashmir had a separate prime minister

New Delhi: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Monday stoked controversy after he said that his party would bring back the demand of “separate Prime Minister and President of Kashmir”, in reference to the debate on the scrapping of Article 35A and 370 of the Constitution. The statement was slammed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, who questioned the NC-ally Congress to “come clean on its stand” on the issue.

Addressing a rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora in response to the debate regarding the abolition of Article 35A and 370, Abdullah said that Jammu and Kashmir had become a part of India with a few conditions, including that it would have its own Constitution. He said.

“To maintain our identity distinctly, we entered certain things in the Constitution. We said our identity would be ours, we will have our own law, our own flag.” He further said, “At that time we also had our 'Sadar-e-Riyasat' (President) and 'Wazir-e-Azam' (Prime Minister), and God willing we will bring that back.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi hit out at Abdullah, stating that the Congress-ally was trying to turn back the clock to 1953 when Jammu and Kashmir had a separate prime minister.

Speaking at a public rally at Telangana's Secunderabad, PM Modi said, "A major ally of the Congress, Mahagathbandhan's powerful minister - the National Conference has said that there should be a separate prime minister in Kashmir. You tell me, do you agree with this demand of the Congress' ally?"

PM Modi further attacked the Congress, saying that the Rahul Gandhi-led party was responsible to answer how its ally could gather the courage to raise such a demand.

Notably, in his address, Abdullah stressed that any tampering with Article 35A and 370 would result in the state "rethinking" its relationship with the rest of the country. He said, "Obviously, what will be our relationship with this country if you remove that special status? Our relation is on that basis. You are talking of removing Article 370 and Article 35A, then you will have to talk about this (rethinking of Jammu and Kashmir's relation with India) too."

While Article 370 allows special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 35A of the Constitution grants special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state.

Interestingly, later today, Abdullah responded to PM Modi’s attack against him over the issue, terming his demand as “nothing new.” In a tweet, he said, “I don’t need other parties to support our stand. National Conference (NC) has always stood for the restoration of the original terms of accession so there is NOTHING new in this. You guys must be really desperate when the Hon PM makes this an election issue.”