Why Mehbooba’s party just declined Omar’s Jantar Mantar invite

“It would be a grave injustice, a disservice, and a sheer betrayal to reduce the honourable aspirations of the people of J&K to the petty, myopic, short-sighted, and detrimental demand for statehood alone,” Mufti said in her letter to Abdullah. “Protesting in unison solely for statehood would only legitimise and sanitise the illegal act of revoking J&K’s special status and could be viewed as a direct endorsement of   August 5, the darkest day in our collective history”.

The National Conference is planning a sit-in at Jantar Mantar on July 20, the first day of Parliament’s monsoon session, to press for restoration of statehood. All National Conference legislators and MPs will take part in the protest. NC MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, however, said he had not been invited and would not be part of a protest that asks for anything short of Article 370.

Mufti termed the demand for restoration of statehood without focus on special status a whitewash. “Not only does this half-hearted demand echo and legitimise the BJP’s odious narrative of relegating Article 370 to the back burner, but it also risks whitewashing the illegal and unconstitutional harakiri carried out in stealth on August 5, 2019,” she said.

The overwhelming mandate that the NC earned was not merely to help restore statehood, Mufti said.

Had that been the case, the BJP and its proxies would have enjoyed far greater electoral success,” she said.
Calling Jammu and Kashmir’s special status an emotive issue, Mufti accused the National Conference of normalising the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019.

“As Kashmir’s senior-most leader, I am certain you realise not only the emotive but also the practical significance of Article 370 for our people. This is precisely why Kashmir’s predominant regional parties, including the PDP and the National Conference, explicitly stated the restoration of Article 370 as a core agenda in their manifestos for the 2024 elections,” she said.

The NC assured the people of this state that the National Conference would fight to restore J&K’s special status and residuary powers, she said.

“People took you at your word, placing their faith in the NC’s manifesto and its promise of a peaceful struggle for Article 370,” she said. “Yet, even after two years of forming the government, I have witnessed with deep concern and worry how the NC has begun to normalise and whitewash the BJP’s agenda by reducing J&K’s larger political struggle to the narrow and diminishing narrative of statehood.”

She said what is even more worrying is that the NC government “has become not merely a mute spectator but, regrettably, equally complicit in disempowering policy decisions such as the summary dismissal of government employees, harassment of Jamaat and its affiliated schools, arbitrary detentions, the systematic purge of our rich literature, and the wanton destruction of J&K’s fragile environment all under the guise of development”.
Asking the National Conference to take a cue from the Ladakhi leadership, Mufti called for a similar exercise in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We must rise above partisan politics and come together to fight for Article 370. Demanding anything shorn of it would amount to a shameful surrender of our rights and dignity and unforgivable footnote that will condemn each one of us in the annals of J&K’s history,” she said.

She added: “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. 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 Sahab should initiate”.

The PDP’s decision not to join the Jantar Mantar sit-in came after the Sajad Lone-led Peoples Conference said it would not be part of the protest.

The Congress and the Communist Party of India have already pledged support to the National Conference’s Jantar Mantar protest.

Saying restoration of statehood is a people’s issue and not that of any particular political party, All India Congress Committee general secretary and south Kashmir MLA Ghulam Ahmad Mir appealed to other political parties to join the protest.

“Congress has consistently opposed the decisions taken on August 5, 2019 and has been raising the demand for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional rights and statehood at every available forum,” Mir said. “Everyone should unite and raise a common voice for the restoration of statehood”.