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By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi |
Updated: October 24, 2020 6:54:03 pm
Farooq Abdullah has been named chairman of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar declaration; Mehbooba Mufti to be deputy. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Saturday said that the recently-floated Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), formed to restore the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, is an “anti-BJP” platform but “not anti-national”.
Farooq, who was unanimously chosen as the PAGD chairman, said, “I want to tell you that this false propaganda by the BJP that the PAGD is anti-national. I want to tell them that this is not true. There is no doubt that (the PAGD) is anti-BJP but it is not anti-national.”
The signatories of the alliance met at Mufti’s residence for the first time after its formation, and adopted the flag of the erstwhile state of J&K as its symbol.
The former chief minister said the BJP has tried to break the federal structure through acts like abrogation of Article 370 and dividing J&K into two Union Territories.
The signatories of the alliance met at Mufti’s residence for the first time after its formation.
“They have tried to destroy the Constitution of the country, they have tried to divide the nation, to break the federal structure which we saw what they did on August 5 last year…I want to tell them that this (PAGD) is not an anti-national jamaat. Our aim is that people of Jammu Kashmir, and Ladakh should get their rights back. That’s where our battle is, our battle is not for more than that,” he said.
While PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has been elected Abdullah’s deputy, CPM leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami was appointed as the convenor of the alliance. Sajad Lone of People’s Conference, meanwhile, was named as the spokesperson.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti addressing press after being released from detention. In front her is the J&K flag (in red) and the PDP flag. (File/Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)
The alliance will come out with a white paper within a month on governance in J&K over the past one year since the abrogation of Article 370, Lone told reporters after the meeting.
“The white paper will not be rhetoric. It will be based on facts and figures to present the reality to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and around the country… An impression is being given that all the corruption had happened in Jammu and Kashmir only,” he said.
On August 4 last year, the signatories to the Gupkar Declaration – so named because they met at the residence of Farooq Abdullah at Gupkar Road in Srinagar – had vowed to “defend identity, autonomy and special status” of J&K.
Last week, the signatories of the alliance had met for the first time since August 2019, after Mufti was released from 14 months of detention.
(Inputs from PTI)