Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah did on Tuesday. He stood in Srinagar and openly said the Centre’s foreign policy scored a real win at the BRICS summit, while in the very next breath he tore into the government over the Uniform Civil Code.
Talking to reporters, Omar zeroed in on the New Delhi Declaration that came out of the 18th BRICS Summit. The document specifically condemned the Pahalgam terror attack of 22 April 2025, the one in which 26 people were killed. For him, the fact that the attack was named at all mattered a lot.
“The fact that Pahalgam was condemned is significant,” he said. “Consider how many allies of Pakistan were present in that room. Therefore, for Pahalgam to be mentioned by name, that in itself is a success of our foreign policy.”
He didn’t want to get into why Pakistan itself wasn’t named. That’s for the Centre and the foreign ministry to explain, he said. What he focused on was the achievement of getting the attack into a joint statement when countries friendly with Pakistan were sitting right there. That, according to him, doesn’t happen by accident.
On reports that China had praised India’s foreign policy and had even started pulling back some troops along the Line of Actual Control, Omar was careful. He said India shouldn’t go around collecting certificates of approval from other countries. “The danger with this approach is that tomorrow, if China says something critical about our foreign policy, what will we do then? We cannot cherry-pick,” he told the media. At the same time, he made it clear that anything which reduces tension on the LoC or the LAC is a positive step, especially for the people who actually live in those border areas.
Then came the sharp turn. The same Omar who was willing to praise the diplomatic success went after the Centre on the Uniform Civil Code. Home Minister Amit Shah had said over the weekend that UCC would be rolled out in all 21 BJP-NDA ruled states before the 2029 elections. Omar didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Something of this nature should not be decided by individual states; it has to be decided by the country as a whole,” he said. In his view, the government is trying to bring in UCC through the back door instead of doing it the proper way. “If they have the numbers, they should bring the UCC bill to Parliament. Why are they doing it through individual states?”
He also pointed out that not every NDA partner is on board. From what he’s hearing, parties like JD(U) are not exactly enthusiastic about implementing it in Bihar. So if even the allies are hesitant, how can the government claim this is a national consensus? A code that applies only to BJP-ruled states, he argued, can’t really be called uniform when the whole country isn’t under one party.
It was an interesting mix from the Chief Minister. On one hand he was ready to acknowledge that getting Pahalgam into a BRICS declaration with Pakistan’s friends in the room was no small thing. On the other, he made it plain that major social legislation like UCC has to go through Parliament, not be pushed state by state. The remarks came just a couple of days after the summit ended, and they show the kind of careful balancing act Omar often tries to do — give credit on foreign policy when he thinks it’s due, but hold the line firmly on domestic issues he sees as problematic.
That’s pretty much where things stand. One day of mixed signals from Srinagar: a pat on the back for diplomacy, and a clear warning on the Uniform Civil Code.
Sources:
Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, NDTV, Moneycontrol, WION and ANI reports, 15-16 September 2026 reports.
@Rohit Manral
