Aditi tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 15
Six political parties from Jammu and Kashmir today formed a formal alliance pledging to work towards restoring the constitutional status of the UT prior to August 5, 2019.
The People’s Alliance Declaration for Gupkar is made up of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party, the People’s Conference, the JK People’s Movement, the CPM and the Awami National Conference.
The alliance was formalized at a meeting held today at the Gupkar residence of the head and sponsor of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar.
After the two-hour meeting, Abdullah said that the alliance battle was constitutional.
“We have called this alliance The People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration. Our battle is a constitutional battle. We want the government of India to return to the people of the state the rights they had before August 5, 2019, ”said Farooq Aabdullah.
JKNC Vice President Omar Abdullah, who attended the meeting, noted that the alliance had been formed by the original signatories of the ‘Gupkar Declaration’ and was given a “name and structure of its own” today.
The original signatories had gathered at Abdullah’s residence on August 4, 2019 and signed the statement fearing a change in J & K’s constitutional status and pledging to work for the autonomy of the region.
The alliance will work against Parliament’s August 5, 2019 movements that remove Article 370 that guaranteed special constitutional status to J&K and forked the status into UT from J&K and Ladakh.
The alliance partners also called for a dialogue between all stakeholders to restore J&K to pre-August 5, 2019 state.
Today’s meeting was attended by Abdullahs, the head of the PDP, Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the People’s Conference Sajad Lone, Javaid Mir of the JK People’s Movement and Yousuf Tarigami of the CPM. Farooq Abdullah said all partners agreed to fight for the restoration of “what was taken from J&K and Ladakh.”
Abdullah said the future course of action would be planned soon.
A prominent absentee from today’s meeting was Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Chairman of the J&K Congress.
The state Congress said Mir had been recommended to take a Covid test and that he had informed Abdullah of his absence today.
The meeting also welcomed Mehbooba back from his 14-month detention, which he denounced as “illegal and unjustified.”
