New Delhi, Jun 24 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said that his party has put forward five demands -- including restoration of statehood, the conduct of Assembly elections, release of political prisoners and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits -- during the all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.
“All the three members, representing Congress in the all-party meeting, put forward various concerns… we informed the PM that the J&K should not have been downgraded and divided into two Union Territories without consulting the elected representatives,” Mr Azad told reporters after attending the meeting.
He said the Congress party kept five demands in front of PM Modi. “We demanded immediate restoration of statehood that was assured by the Home Minister Amit Shah on the floor of the House. We told them that the atmosphere is conductive right now as the elections – BDC and DDC – have been conducted and the valley is peaceful… the borders are also silent. So, we told them that this is the perfect time to restore statehood,” he said.
Mr Azad said that the other demand that was put forth was to hold Assembly election immediately to restore democracy in J&K. “As the DDC and other locals elections were held in J&K, the logical next step is the hold Assembly elections,” he said.
He said that Congress also demanded assurance by the Centre that the land and jobs of the citizen of J&K will be protected. “The domicile law is a pre-Independence law and has been in J&K since Maharaja rule… We demanded that the Centre should guarantee that the jobs and land of the locals will be protected,” he said.
The Congress leader said that the demand to release all political detainees was also put forward. “We are not saying that the government should release militants, but it should release all political detainees who were arrested when the Centre abrogated Article 370 and Article 35 A,” he said.
He said the issue of rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits was also raised during the meeting. “We demanded that the Kashmiri Pandits, who are living in different parts of the country, including Jammu, should be brought back to Kashmir valley with dignity,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi chaired a meeting of 14 leaders from eight political parties in J&K on Thursday to discuss the future course of action for the Union Territory. This was the first such initiative by the Centre since the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K on August 5, 2019.
The Centre had invited four former chief ministers – Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mehbooba Mufti, besides four Deputy Chief Ministers – Muzafar Hussain Beigh, Tara Chand, Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta. Leaders of six other political parties -- Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami of CPI(M), Sajad Gani Lone of Peoples Conference, Mohammad Altaf Bukhari of Apni Party, Prof Bhim Singh of Panthers Party, Ravinder Raina of BJP and G A Mir of Congress – were also invited in the meeting.
UNI ABS JW2020