LG should apologise for 'disrespecting' democracy, Constitution: Deputy CM
Jul 15, 2025
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Tuesday took a stern view of the alleged police manhandling of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and said Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha should apologise for "disrespecting" democracy, the Constitution and the mandate of the people.
Abdullah on Monday scaled the gates of the Naqshband Sahib graveyard to pay tribute to 22 people killed by the Dogra army on July 13, 1931 outside Srinagar's central jail and alleged that he was subjected to "physical grappling".
"The LG should apologise for what happened yesterday. He should not apologise to us but to the people who gave the mandate to us, he should seek an apology from that mandate and the Constitution and Indian democracy," Choudhary told reporters here.
"The LG should also seek an apology from the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in 1947 for the independence of the country," he added.
He said what happened on Monday was a "disrespect" of democracy and the freedom for which lakhs of people sacrificed their lives.
"We did not get the freedom easily, many sacrifices were made for it. The Omar Abdullah government in J&K was elected under the same freedom and constitution. This government has the mandate of the people."
"Whatever happened yesterday, what the police did, my leader Omar Abdullah, is an elected chief minister, elected by the people. This is not Omar Abdullah's insult, but the insult of the democracy in J&K and the country, it is the insult of the people of J&K who have elected us," he said.
Without naming anyone, Choudhary said "they" should not think that "they will hide behind the statehood, push us and we will tolerate it".
"We and the people of J&K will not tolerate if anyone tries to disrespect our leader," he said.
Referring to the LG's reported statement that he felt responsible for the Pahalgam attack, Chaudhary said Sinha remembered after 82 days that he is responsible for security lapse in Pahalgam, and "one day he will accept that what the police, which is under his control, did with Omar Abdullah, was wrong".
He said the 22 people who were killed in 1931 did not fight against India but the British rule.
"In 1931, India was not an independent country; it was ruled by the British. They fought against the British. Those people are martyrs, they were against oppression," he said, adding "what happened yesterday, was also oppression".
