Omar Abdullah|Picture Credit: ANI
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday (August 8, 2025) distanced himself from the current restriction on 25 books by the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration.
“Get your truths right before you call me a coward, you know nothing. The restriction has actually been enforced by the L-G utilizing the only department he formally manages– the Home Department. I’ve never ever prohibited books and I never ever would,”Mr. Abdullah stated in a post on X.
The J&K Home department, which comes under the Lieutenant-Governor, conjured up Section 98 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 on Wednesday to categorise 25 books as”surrendered for propagating incorrect story and secessionism”. 
< img src ="https://th-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/pekr2/article69911184.ece/alternates/FREE_1200/AFP_68Y3667.jpg"data-src-template ="https://th-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/pekr2/article69911184.ece/alternates/FREE_1200/AFP_68Y3667.jpg"data-original ="https://th-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/pekr2/article69911184.ece/alternates/FREE_1200/AFP_68Y3667.jpg"alt ="A shopkeeper waits for customers at a bookshop in Srinagar on August 7, 2025. Books by prominent writers such as Arundhati Roy are on the ‘forfeited’ list."title ="A shopkeeper waits for customers at a bookshop in Srinagar on August 7, 2025. Books by prominent writers such as Arundhati Roy are on the ‘forfeited’ list."width ="100%" height ="100%">
A store owner awaits consumers at a bookshop in Srinagar on August 7, 2025. Books by popular authors such as Arundhati Roy are on the ‘surrendered’ list.|Image Credit: AFP
There is growing opposition to the L-G administration’s transfer to list books of popular authors such as Christopher Snedden, A.G. Noorani, Sumantra Bose, Ayesha Jalal, Sugata Bose; Arundhati Roy, Stephen P. Cohen, Anuradha Bhasin, Seema Qazi, and so on as “surrendered” in J&K.
