Srinagar, June 22: All the leaders of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) invited for the all-party meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday will be attending it, National Conference president and head of the PAGD Dr Farooq Abdullah said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference after a PAGD meeting held at his Gupkar residence, Dr Abdullah, without mentioning restoration of Article 370, said the agenda of the amalgamation “remains same as earlier and will be put forth in the all-party meeting.”
“Our stand is clear to everyone and we don’t have to repeat it. All the leaders have received individual invitations and each one of us will attend the meeting. Everyone will present their point of view in the all-party meeting,” said Dr Abdullah.
He said the PAGD will be briefing the media once they are back from the Delhi meeting. Dr Abdullah also said that the PAGD leadership will ask the PM to reconsider the Government of India’s stand (on special status of J&K).
Also addressing the media persons, People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said the PAGD leadership was in favour of dialogue and expected some confidence building measures to be taken up during Thursday’s meeting with the PM.
“The reason for which this alliance has come together, we will talk about what has been taken from us. It is wrong, illegal and unconstitutional. Until you restore this, you cannot bring peace to the region,” Mufti said.
Mufti said the PAGD leadership was initially mulling to send only Dr Farooq Abdullah as its representative to attend the all-party meeting. However, considering that invitations for the meeting have been received individually, “so all those invited will be attending the meeting with the PM,” Mufti added.
Mufti said that in the meeting the PAGD leaders will be raising the issue of release of political prisoners. “Can’t they at least bring back many of these jailed persons to the Valley instead of letting them languish in jails outside,” Mufti said.
Senior CPI (M) leader and spokesman of PAGD, Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami, said the government has not informed the PAGD leaders of any agenda for the all-party meeting. However, Tarigami said they will “reiterate the agenda” of the PAGD in the all-party meeting.
“We will appeal to the PM to reconsider the guarantees given to us under the Constitution,” Tarigami said. He said all the concerns pertaining to the people of J&K and Ladakh will be raised in the all-party meeting. “We are not asking for the stars. We are not going there to say yes for everything and sign any pre-decided agenda. We will agree upon only things that are in favour of people of J&K and Ladakh and out-rightly reject something that is not in people’s favour,” said Tarigami.
Awami National Conference vice-president, Muzaffar Ahmad Shah, said: “There will be no compromise on Article 370 and 35-A”.
As many as 14 leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including four former chief ministers of the erstwhile state, have been invited for a meeting that will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla had reached out to these leaders to invite them to the meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence to discuss the future course of action for J&K.
Among those invited are four former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.
Four former deputy chief ministers of the erstwhile state — Congress leader Tara Chand, People’s Conference leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, and BJP leaders Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta — too have been invited to the meet.
In addition, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) chief Altaf Bukhari, Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference, J&K Congress head G A Mir, BJP’s Ravinder Raina and Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh have been invited to the meeting.
The meeting which will be the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019 — is also likely to be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders.