A day before the all-party meeting, to be convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the ruling National Conference hardened its stand saying that it would not repeat what happened in July 2000 after its autonomy resolution was rejected by National Democratic Alliance government.
Senior NC leader Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan told The Hindu on Tuesday evening that party's core group, which met under the chairmanship of president Farooq Abdullah, discussed in detail the party's strategy for the all-party meet.
“Our demand for withdrawing or amending AFSPA at Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meet was not conceded and we were disappointed, but we are still hopeful that something positive will come out” he said.
However, Mr. Ramzan made it clear that the party will not “keep mum” if the decision was averse to “our demands,” as was done in 2000 when NC continued to support the NDA government despite rejection of the autonomy resolution. “We have come with a massive mandate of people and we cannot afford to vitiate that if our demands are not met,” he said hinting at an extreme step party may take.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is not attending the meeting. However, No reason was given for that.
