India, July 18 -- Laying down its condition to join the protest scheduled by the National Conference in Delhi on July 20 seeking restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday said restoration of Article 370, release of political prisoners and lifting the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami should also be included in the agenda. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said that after discussing the issue, the party does not seem it fit to join the protest exclusively for the demand of statehood. "After careful consideration and deliberations with my senior colleagues, I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fit for us to participate in a protest whose raison d'etre is solely and exclusively the demand for statehood," she said.
The PDP will join the Jantar Mantar protest only if the restoration of Article 370, the release of political prisoners, and the lifting of the ban on Jamaat are central to its agenda, Mehbooba said in a letter to National Conference president Farooq Abdullah. "Protesting in unison solely for statehood would only legitimise and sanitise the illegal act of revoking Jammu and Kashmir's special status and could be viewed as a direct endorsement of August 5, the darkest day in our collective history," Mehbooba wrote in the two-page letter. Abdullah has invited leaders from across Jammu and Kashmir's political spectrum to join the National Conference-led protest at Jantar Mantar on the first day of the Monsoon session of Parliament to press for its demand for statehood restoration.
Mehbooba said it would be "a grave injustice, a disservice, and a sheer betrayal" to reduce the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to the "petty, myopic, short-sighted, and detrimental demand for statehood alone". "Demanding anything short of it (special status) would amount to a shameful surrender of our rights and dignity, an unforgivable footnote that will condemn each one of us in the annals of Jammu and Kashmir's history," she said. The PDP chief said this "half-hearted" demand echoes and legitimises the BJP's "odious narrative of relegating Article 370 to the back burner". She said the overwhelming mandate given by people to the National Conference was not merely to help restore statehood.
"Had that been the case, the BJP and its proxies would have enjoyed far greater electoral success," she added. Mehbooba said that although there has been no response to her earlier initiative for an all-party front on the lines of the Ladakh movement, she reiterates her request to Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah take the lead in this regard. "The first step, perhaps, could be to convene an all-party meeting, including representatives from sections of civil society, to discuss and seek redressal of the host of issues that are currently disempowering and dehumanising the people of Jammu and Kashmir. An honest and meaningful political process can only begin by addressing fundamental issues, including calling for the release of political prisoners and seeking the revocation of the ban on socio-political organisations, including Jamaat-e-Islami," she said. The former chief minister said even the restoration of statehood cannot be treated as a one-time event. "It requires sustained political effort and engagement, which Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should initiate. Such an effort would give our deeply disillusioned people a much-needed ray of hope that there is, indeed, light at the end of the tunnel," she added.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.