Saying that "we lost our way" with the death of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that Jammu and Kashmir wouldn't have been in the situation it is in right now if the path charted by Vajpayee had been followed. Abdullah was speaking during the obituary references on the second day of the J&K assembly. The members paid tributes to the former assembly members, including Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who passed away in the last six years. "I believe, if we had walked on the path that was charted by Vajpayee ji, we wouldn’t have been in the situation that we are in right now,” Abdullah said in the House. "He is no more and we lost our way.” He praised Vajpayee for going to Lahore and visiting Minar-e-Pakistan, which was "difficult for any Indian leader to do". "At the border, he (Vajpayee) maintained that we can change friends but not neighbours. He said dialogue is the way out and extended the hand of friendship despite the setbacks," Abdullah said. "I have worked with him as a minister. He always tried to improve the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Whenever the situation in Jammu and Kashmir worsened, he said that dialogue is the way forward.” Abdullah said that Vajpayee opened cross-border roads to get people closer. The roads are now closed and attempts are being made to keep us apart, he said. Vajpayee's commitment to build bridges and foster relationships, he said, “should inspire us to continue working towards peace and understanding in the region”. He also made a mention of BJP leader and Nagrota legislator Devender Singh Rana, who passed away last week. Rana was a close aide of Abdullah before he switched to the BJP two years ago. While the members paid tributes to the former legislators who passed during the last six years, two legislators – National Conference's Bashir Ahmad Veeri and Peoples Democratic Party's Rafiq Ahmad Naik – made a mention of Hurriyat leader Geelani, who died in September 2021. The Hurriyat patriarch was a three-time legislator from Sopore – in 1972, 1977 and 1987 – before he resigned from the assembly in 1989 to spearhead a Separatist movement.
