Srinagar, July 18 -- Deciding not to be part of NC's Jantar Mantar protest for statehood, Peoples Conference president Sajad Gani Lone on Friday said the protest scheduled by the National Conference on the first day of the Monsoon session of Parliament was a process to bury Article 370 and create confusion by taking Jammu and Kashmir's statehood issue to pan-India politics.

Admitting that he can't be certain of the NC's true motive, he asserted that it seems this is less a genuine campaign for statehood and more an exercise aimed at burying Articles 370 and 35A for good, leaving statehood as a secondary and diminished consolation prize.

He said the ideal way to pursue restoration of statehood was for the Omar Abdullah government to call...