Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta today described demand of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration as unrealistic saying deep inside their hearts the PAGD leaders also know that restoration of Article 370 is next to impossible.
Gupta said the PAGD leaders are misleading the people of Kashmir again and again and they are using the age-old tactics of "deceit and deception to create an atmosphere against the prolific policies of the BJP Government."
"The same leaders performed Dandvat Pranam before Prime Minister Narendra Modi during All Party Meeting and not uttered a word about Article 370 but now raking up the issue to befool Kashmiris," he claimed.
Earlier in the day, Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration passed a resolution describing August 5 decisions illegal and unconstitutional and sought restoration of the rights of people of J&K including Articles 370, 35A and full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The PAGD said the government had tried to scuttle today’s PAGD meeting by spreading rumors.
“We want Jammu and Kashmir’s position which existed on August 4, 2019, to be restored. We want to live with dignity and we don’t want to live under this humiliation. The silence of people is being assumed as normalcy. The present government leadership doesn’t want anyone to raise his head and speak up,” the PAGD spokesperson and senior CPIM leader Mohammad Yousuf Taragami said after the meeting.
Addressing the PAGD meeting, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said the BJP is pursuing policies that are hard to understand. She said not only jobs but even rights of people over sand extraction has taken away. Mehbooba Mufti said the government is selling resources of J&K with impunity and three more power projects have been given to the NHPC. She said the BJP is allowed to meet without any restrictions but the other parties are being stopped on one or the other pretext. She also said the police used lathis against local sand contractors in Pulwama recently to safeguard the "interests of outsiders.”
Dr Farooq Abdullah in his address said the parties weren’t allowed to talk. “Have we no right to talk about the state,” he said.
The BJP countered by saying every citizen of the J&K knows well the intention behind the PAGD and their designs to derail the peace and development process initiated by the Modi government in J&K. "This contentious Article gave J&K unemployment, terrorism, under-development, poverty and hunger. Had the PAGD leaders really wanted to uplift the people of J&K they would have demanded more industry and avenues to promote tourism," Gupta said, adding people have understood the motive of PAGD and will not fall prey to its tactics again.
