Haseeb Drabu's speech cost him dearly, says Omar Abdullah

Soon after Haseeb Drabu was sacked on Monday as the Jammu and Kashmir finance minister, former state chief minister Omar Abdullah said Drabu's speech at an event in New Delhi has cost him "dearly".

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti took a tough action over Drabu's remarks that Kashmir "isn't a political issue", and sacked him from the council of ministers."His (Drabu's) PHDCCI (PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry) speech cost him dearly," Omar tweeted.

"Will be interesting to see who replaces him in the Finance Ministry," the National Conference working president added.

A letter was sent to Raj Bhawan informing state Governor N N Vohra that Drabu has been dropped from the council of ministers of the Mehbooba Mufti government, official sources said.

Last Friday, Drabu had said at an event organised by the PHDCCI in New Delhi that Kashmir "isnt a political issue, but a society with social issues".

"Don't see J&K as a conflict state and a political issue, it is a society which has social issues right now. We are trying to find our own space and we are going through a process which many other countries are also going through, Drabu had said.

"It (J&K) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it, that the political situation has never improved, he said at the event.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday asked Drabu to immediately retract his statement, saying the state was a political issue and its resolution formed the party's core agenda.