The CPI(M) leader and former legislator of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, on Tuesday demanded the “restoration of constitutionally-guaranteed rights” to people of J&K.
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Pointing out that “there is a huge, unprecedented disappointment” prevailing in Kashmir and other parts of the erstwhile State “against what has been done arbitrarily,” Mr. Tarigami told journalists of The Hindu Group that “we have this aspiration to be counted. We need to be heard. That opportunity to us has not been provided, unfortunately.”
To a query, he clarified that “the restoration of rights” did not just mean the return to Statehood. “We want to be treated as citizens with rights,” he said.
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Recalling the circumstances under which the abrogation of Article 370, which provided a special status to J&K, came into effect, he observed that it was done without getting “consent or even dialogue” with the people of the former State. “You cannot expect me to support you for what you are doing or what you are claiming to be doing for me and about me without me. That is not good. That is not democratic. It is unacceptable to me as a citizen.”
Recalling how former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao has said, “the sky is the limit” and his successor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, referred to the ambit of “insaniyat” (humanity) on the issue of autonomy for J&K, the CPI(M) leader said the position of the Union government went from one extreme to another. J&K was “divided and downsized” into two union territories.
Emphasising that the Articles 370 and 35A were not hindrances to integration with the rest of the country, he recounted that despite them, the former State had “readily agreed” to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Contrasting the approach of the Central government to the northeast with that of J&K, Mr. Tarigami said “there is no factory of terrorism” in Kashmir and “we should not oblige those forces which seek to undermine the relationship between the people of J&K and the Union of India.”
He criticised the Centre for its “reluctance” to have elections to the J&K Assembly and for the move to increase the strength of the legislature even before the commencement of delimitation of J&K.