- Friday, May 03, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Shubham Ghosh
THE People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is set to attend the all-party meeting that prime minister Narendra Modi has convened in New Delhi on Thursday (24). Alliance chairperson and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah made the announcement after the PAGD leaders met at his Gupkar Road residence in the national capital to discuss the Centre’s invitation to leaders from the state.
“We have received the invitation from the prime minister and we are going to attend (the meeting),” Abdullah told reporters after the meeting with other leaders of the alliance flanking him. Fourteen leaders from Jammu and Kashmir have been invited to the meeting which will be chaired by the prime minister to discuss the future course of the action on the territory the special status of which was abrogated in August 2019 and it was bifurcated into Union Territories. Strict restrictions were imposed on the state and several local leaders were put under detention. The upcoming meeting will be the first such exercise since the Modi government made the move on Jammu and Kashmir.
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The PAGD chairperson also said the alliance was confident that it would be able to push its stand before prime minister Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah during the crucial meeting. Abdullah, 83, said: “When the meeting ends, we will brief you here as well as in Delhi on what we did there, what we said and what was their response.”
When asked about the stand of the alliance, Abdullah, who is also the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party, said everybody knew about and there was no need to repeat it. The PAGD is a six-party alliance which came into existence after the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.
Assuring that all those who have been invited will attend the meeting, Abdullah said: “(PDP chief) Mehbooba ji, me, (CPI-M leader) Tarigami sahab and all those who have been invited from us (the alliance), will go.” Asked about the agenda of the meeting, the veteran leader said no agenda has been pitched by the Centre and they were ready to talk about any issue at the meeting.
‘We will talk on what has been snatched away from us’
Alliance vice president Mehbooba Mufti, president of the Peoples Democratic Party and another former chief minister, said she would press for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status along with statehood. “We will talk on what has been snatched away from us, that it was a mistake and it was an illegal and unconstitutional act, without restoring which, the issue of J-K and the situation in J-K and peace in the whole region cannot be established,” she said.
PAGD spokesperson and CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami also hinted at seeking restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status during the meeting with the prime minister. “We will not ask for the stars, but will seek what has been ours and should be ours only. As we have no information on the agenda of the meeting called by the PM, we will reiterate the stand of the PAGD there, before the highest leadership,” he said.
According to officials, the national leadership’s meeting with leaders from Jammu and Kashmir is part of the Modi government’s initiatives to facilitate political processes, including holding assembly elections, in the Union Territory.
