Srinagar: Observing its 21st foundation day, the People Democratic Party (PDP) today reiterated its commitment to fight for the restoration of honor and dignity of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.
Senior party leaders in a statement said August 5 marks a black day in the constitutional history of J&K, when solemn commitments made by the same Parliament and in the Constitution of India were annulled for a ‘majoritarian goal of bulldozing the country into one saffron color’.
“The State was dismembered, downgraded, humiliated and stripped of its dignity. This has not just devastated the foundations of the trust people of J&K had put in the Constitution of India but also created ripples all around,” the leaders said.
Referring to the move to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A, the leaders said this was in violation of all the commitments made to the people of J&K and the repeated decisions of the Supreme Court of India that these Articles and the special status of J&K had attained finality.
The leaders said that the Party had been founded in 1999 by its patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his colleagues to bring J&K out of the morass of uncertainty, violence and lawlessness. It had been the founding principle of PDP that Kashmir which has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan should be converted into a bridge of understanding. For this a campaign of opening the traditional routes of trade and travel between two parts of J&K was launched and significant progress achieved. The PDP workers laid down their lives for the cause and ultimately the roads were opened after decades of hostility and suspicion.
Internally, the leaders recalled that the PDP stressed the need to reduce the footprints of security forces and provide the people of J&K full benefits of democracy and development. The PDP reiterates its commitment to these objectives and will continue to strive through peaceful and democratic means to achieve these goals.
Reiterating their profound faith in the leadership of the party President Mehbooba Mufti, the leaders said the party will take a call on all major issues facing the State on her release from detention.
The leaders said that the August 5 was an attempt to erase the timeline from 1931 to 2019 without recognizing the history that saw people of J&K withstanding and surviving the worst historical episodes to end our distinct identity, traditions, culture and languages, irrespective of the religious backgrounds the rulers came from.
“J&K is at the cusp of making a choice that determines the future and safety of our future generations. All stakeholders need to rise to the occasion and in unison demand the rightful, rather than being boxed in small time demands and short gains. History may not be kind if we fail to rise to the occasion,” the leaders added.
The leaders said the Party believes that the road to peace and progress of South Asia runs through Kashmir. The Government of India needs to rethink its policy and follow the time-honored mechanism of dialogue and engagement with all stakeholders. Enforcing peace of the graveyard and calling it normalcy is an illusion that has failed to impress anybody. It is time that the people of State are treated with respect, rather than suspicion and hostility and the project to outnumber them in their own habitat through demographic change is stopped forthwith.
The party also paid rich tributes to thousands of workers who stood by party and went through rigors jails all across country for standing by the party and carrying forward the vision of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
