Peoples Conference (PC) chief Sajad Lone, whose party saw the joining of three prominent politicians in Srinagar on Sunday, said the time has come to engage people of the country and clear the misconceptions.
“We need to engage with the people of India by removing all bottlenecks of miscommunication. There are misconceptions. We need to meet the Opposition, people in government and the civil society. Irritating them will take us nowhere. The mission is difficult but not impossible,” said Mr. Lone to a question on the pre-August 5, 2019 status of J&K.
Describing the situation in J&K as “extraordinary” after the abrogation of J&K’s constitutional position in 2019, Mr. Lone said only two institutions, the judiciary and Parliament, can restore the provisions of Article 370.
“We were the first one to approach the court. But, on the other hand, engagement with the central leadership, both the ruling as well as the Opposition parties, will help get back pre-August 5, 2019 position to J&K,” Mr. Lone, who became the first mainstream leader to quit the regional grand alliance of the Peoples Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), said.
On the joining of Peoples Democratic Party’s Peerzada Mansoor Hussain and Khursheed Aalam and National Conference’s Syed Basharat Bukhari, Mr. Lone said, “My party is going to play a pivotal role in the coming decades and contribute to the politics and welfare of J&K. These leaders’ acumen and experience will immensely benefit the party. They will help us navigate the troubled waters J&K is in,” Mr. Lone said.
After breaking away from the PAGD, Mr. Lone is fast emerging as a major player on the political scape of Kashmir. Earlier, PDP founder member and ex-Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baigh and PDP’s young leader Arif Amin joined Mr. Lone’s party, which was a formidable force only in Handwara and Kupwara constituencies.
The joining of Mr. Hussain, once a close aide and ex-political adviser of Ms. Mufti, will help the PC to create its footprints in south Kashmir too.
“Mr. Lone thinks out of box solutions. In the past 70 years, the people of J&K have failed to gain anything. I met Sajad sahib in the jail and had a great time to understand him,” Mr. Hussain said.
