Regional aspirations should bow to national aspirations: Omar

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of DMK quitting the UPA over Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said assertive regionalism should not be ‘disproportionate’ to national aspirations. The National Conference leader was also of the view that regional aspirations should generally ‘bow’ to national aspirations. [caption id=“attachment_688235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. AFP[/caption] Omar said coalition politics in the country has opened a room for regional parties to have their say where regional aspirations have to be met. Touching upon assertive regionalism, he said, “the most recent example of assertion is by DMK, and last year we saw the TMC. But even in the times of NDA–we were a member of that coalition then.” Omar said in the era of coalition politics, regional parties who have greater numbers in Parliament and who are part of the ruling coalition definitely get an opportunity to have a say in decisions at the national level. Speaking at the Mindmine Summit 2013 in New Delhi, Omar said coalition politics allows regional parties to have a say in the national level decision making but sometimes it is disproportionate. “But some times it is disproportionate… Regional aspirations should generally bow to national aspirations,” he said in an apparent reference to the action by DMK, which quit the ruling UPA over the Centre’s stand on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. “Everybody knows Chandrababu Naidu of TDP pulled a lot of weight. If he sneezed, Delhi would catch a cold. So much so, that he was dictating appointments of top bureaucrats,” Omar said. The Chief Minister said India is really a conglomerate of states and has never been one homogeneous society which needed to be recognised and embraced. PTI