The People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of five political parties of Jammu and Kashmir , on Monday said it was disappointed with the outcome of the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24 in New Delhi.
“All the members of the PAGD have expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the Delhi meeting, especially at the absence of any substantial confidence-building measures (CBMs), such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails and taking concrete steps to end the siege and atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019,” Gupkar alliance spokesman M.Y. Tarigami said.
He underlined that the CBMs would have initiated the much-needed process of reaching out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who were the biggest stakeholders and sufferers of the problem.
Hardening its position on the restoration of Statehood, Mr. Tarigami said, “As far as restoration of Statehood is concerned, it has been BJP’s commitment on the floor of the Parliament and they must honour their word. So, any Assembly election must be held only after restoration of full Statehood for J&K. To this end, the PAGD has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K, with a view to take a common position on the issue.”
‘Struggle will continue’
The PAGD, which held a series of meetings on Sunday, reiterated “to fight together to reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J&K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal”.
“The PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible,” it said.
Delimitation panel’s visit
The alliance’s stand assumes significance as it comes a day ahead of the visit of the J&K Delimitation Commission to the Union Territory to hold meetings with political parties, civil society groups and the officials.
The members of the PAGD met on Sunday evening under the chairmanship of Farooq Abdullah at his residence in Srinagar and was attended by vice-chairperson Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party, M.Y.Tarigami of the CPI(M), Justice (retd.) Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference, Javed Mustafa Mir of the J&K Peoples Movement and Muzaffar Ahmed Shah of the Awami National Conference.
“It was called to discuss the recent meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in Delhi on 24th June,” the Gupkar alliance spokesman said.
Mr. Tarigami said the political parties associated with the alliance “will take a decision about meeting the delimitation panel at the party level”.
The Commission, which is arriving on July 6 for a four-day visit, has invited the political parties in the Union Territory, besides the five members, including two MPs from the BJP and three from the NC. It has sought suggestions before redrawing the boundaries of seven new constituencies.
Published - July 05, 2021 01:16 pm IST
