(PTI)
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: In a clear signal of political activity resuming in J&K just over a year after it was stripped of its special status, six regional and national parties – including the National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress – on Saturday announced that they were coming together to fight for the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A.
“We reiterate that we are bound by the contents of the Gupkar declaration and will unwaveringly adhere to it. We are committed to strive for the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A, the Constitution of J&K and the restoration of the state, and any division of the state is unacceptable to us. We unanimously reiterate that there can be nothing about us without us,” NC’s Farooq Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, Congress’s G A Mir, CPM’s M Y Tarigami, J&K People’s Conference’s Sajad Gani Lone and the Awani National Conference’s Muzaffar Shah said in a joint statement.
“The signatories to the Gupkar declaration of August 4, 2019, have barely managed to establish a basic level of communication with each other in the face of a series of prohibitive and punitive curbs imposed by the government, aimed at impeding all social and political interactions. The limited confabulations held within the constraints imposed have resulted in this unanimous resolution. The unfortunate events of August 5, 2019, have unrecognisably changed the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi,” the statement said.
Terming the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A “spitefully short-sighted and unconstitutional”, the parties said the move was “an attempt to redefine who we are”.
“These changes were accompanied by repressive measures meant to silence people and coerce them into submission, and continue unabated,” they added.
On Thursday, Farooq had told reporters that he was in touch with Mehbooba, who remains in detention under the Public Safety Act, and that they both stood by the Gupkar declaration. The Srinagar MP and former CM said he convened a meeting of his senior party colleagues at his residence earlier in the day to “see whether they are free to move out of their homes or not”.
Suggesting that elections in J&K might see a united front, the statement said: “There is unanimity amongst us that collective institutions are the effective way to fight for these rights and tirelessly struggle to get back the special status and restore the constitutional guarantees forcibly taken away against our will. We want to assure the people that all our political activities will be subservient to the sacred goal of reverting to the status of J-K as it existed on August 4, 2019.”
Prior to the nullification of Article 370, top functionaries of these parties had met at Farooq’s Gupkar Road residence here to draft the declaration opposing any move by the Centre to tamper with the erstwhile state’s special status.
J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina said the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A were “next to impossible” and that the parties planning to push for it were “doing nothing but daydreaming”.
“Due to the pre-Article 370 arrangements, more than a lakh people have lost their precious lives in J&K as these pseudo leaders carried on their duties with the hidden agenda of Pakistan,” he said at a BJP workers’ meet in Rajouri district of Jammu.
