PDP terms abrogation as “beginning of broader assault” on constitutional values
Srinagar: Police on Tuesday foiled a protest march by the ruling National Conference (NC) here against the Centre’s August 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 and divide the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
Led by NC Kashmir president Showkat Ahmad Mir, MLAs and senior leaders assembled at the party headquarters Nawa-i-Subah here and raised slogans against the Centre’s decision taken on August 5, 2019, and called for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Raising slogans like “August 5, 2019, decisions are not acceptable”, “Black laws are not acceptable” and “Restore Articles 370 and 35A”, the protesters tried to march towards the Lal Chowk city centre but were not allowed to step out of the party office complex by police, who shut the gates of Nawa-i-Subah.
NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said police did not allow the party leaders to move out and even “pushed some leaders”.
“Our MLA Salman Sagar was injured in the melee. He suffered foot injuries,” Dar said.
He said the NC activists wanted to march towards the historic clock tower at Lal Chowk to register their protest against the Centre’s August 2019 decisions.
“We also wanted to press our demand for the restoration of statehood as it has been six years now (since Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded to a union territory),” he added.
Meanwhile, Peoples Conference chief Sajad Gani Lone said August 5 will always be a “brutal reminder of undermining of democracy” and “an ugly example of selective targeting”.
“This was the day when whatever little was left from the glories of the past was taken away. I will never lose hope. We will get what has been taken away. If the glories don’t last, the inglorious won’t last either,” Lone said in a post on X.
Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said August 5 is a “painful reminder of a dark moment in our recent history”.
“On this day in 2019, the sudden and sweeping constitutional changes by the Centre left deep scars on the hearts and minds of the people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I have said it before and I will say it again: New Delhi must uphold the dignity and democratic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The restoration of these rights is not an act of generosity, it is a constitutional and moral obligation,” Bukhari wrote on X.
He said the region has gone through a prolonged phase of violence and bloodshed, and the people have suffered immensely over the past several decades, and “therefore they long for peace, justice, and dignity — fundamental aspirations that can no longer be ignored”.
“This is the right time for New Delhi to initiate a genuine, inclusive and meaningful dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in order to address their issues and grievances and move towards a lasting resolution,” Bukhari said.
Police also foiled a sit-in protest by the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress here against the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Scores of Congress leaders and workers led by Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Tariq Hameed Karra assembled at the party office at M A Road here and tried to hold a sit-in on the main road outside the office.
However, a posse of police prevented them from moving outside and locked the gates of the party office.
The protestors then staged the protest inside the party headquarters.
Speaking to reporters, Karra said the people of J&K were stripped of their identity on August 5, 2019.
“On August 5, the identity of the 1.40 crore people of J&K was stripped and J&K was not only bifurcated, but degraded as well. This is a day of mourning for the people of J&K and the Congress is observing it as a black day in all the 20 districts of J&K,” he said.
On reports about possibility of Jammu being granted statehood while Kashmir stays on as a UT, Karra said any misadventure in J&K is not going to help India globally.
“It will be further devastation for the people of J&K and will create a wrong precedent in the country,” he added.
Asked about the change in J&K post the abrogation, the JKPCC president said the BJP had stated it would be a ‘Naya Jammu and Kashmir’, but we have been “cursing this new J&K” and have requested them to return the old J&K.
“We do not want this new J&K which has disempowered the people, curbed their voices, and has not even honoured the civil liberties of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. So kindly return us old J&K,” he said.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said August 5 marks “a black day” for the entire nation, and the abrogation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was the “beginning of a broader assault” on constitutional values of the country.
The PDP also claimed that its president, along with party workers, was barred from stepping out of the party office to take out a protest against the “unilateral and unconstitutional” abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
“August 5 marks a black day not just for Jammu & Kashmir, but for the entire nation. On this day, the Constitution was subverted not by foreign hands, but from within, by a brute majority in the heart of our democracy,” Mufti said in a post on X.
She said the “unconstitutional” abrogation of J&K’s special status was not an end, “it was the beginning of a broader assault on constitutional values”.
“J&K was turned into a laboratory — its people disempowered, its land dispossessed, its demography targeted. What many saw as a local issue was a warning for all,” she charged.
“Today, that warning is unfolding across the country. In Bihar (SIR) threatens to disenfranchise lakhs. From Tamil Nadu to Kashmir non-local voters are being added en masse, paving the way for demographic manipulation and electoral distortion,” she said.
“If India does not wake up now, what began in J&K will soon define the nation,” she added.
Flaying the curbs placed on its leaders, the PDP said, “Suppressing democratic dissent has become the new normal in Kashmir”.
They said PDP leaders and workers assembled at the party office and tried to take out a protest march against the abrogation of Article 370 on its sixth anniversary, but were not allowed by the police to move out.
The party leaders and workers then staged a protest march at the party office.
Speaking to reporters, PDP leader Iltija Mufti said, “On August 5, 2019, the illegal abrogation of Article 370 was done, and the Constitution and the flag of J&K were taken away from us”.
“This is the change that has taken place in the six years. We are a legal party, and even six years after the abrogation of Article 370, we are not being allowed to protest. We were put under house arrest six years ago, and today again the political parties were put under arrest,” she said.
She said there has been no change even after six years.
“We have been kept here inside the PDP office like animals. A huge CRPF vehicle has been stationed here and we are not being allowed to move forward. We told them that we wanted to take out a peaceful protest. But we were not allowed. Nothing has changed here,” she claims.
Iltija Mufti asked which part of the Indian Constitution is being implemented here? “We are being stripped of our fundamental right to speak and peacefully protest. Not just our special status, flag, and constitution, but efforts are being made to take away our voices as well,” she added.
NC, Cong, PDP, APUM workers hit streets in Jammu for statehood, denounce BJP
Congress, National Conference, and Peoples Democratic Party workers on Tuesday hit the streets here, demanding the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The protests were held on the sixth anniversary of the revocation of the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories.
The three parties, along with Jammu-based All Parties United Morcha (APUM) – a group of various social and political parties -, observed August 5 as a “black day” in a denunciation of the downgrading of the state in 2019.
Pradesh Congress Committee working president Raman Bhalla, along with former minister Lal Singh and Taranjit Singh Tony, used a crane to garland the statue of the last Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, at Tawi bridge in the heart of the city.
“Today’s black day protest is part of our intensified campaign under ‘Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq’ to seek restoration of pride and glory of this historic Dogra state, which was destroyed by the BJP on August 5, 2019,” Bhalla told reporters while leading the protest.
The party’s J&K chief spokesperson, Ravinder Sharma, said the BJP undermined the democratically elected government and was running the affairs through a “remote control” from Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s office.
“The assembly elections were held on the directions of the Supreme Court last year, but the popular government is not allowed to work. They have lost the elections but are still running the government through the LG office, and as a result of the dual rule, the people are suffering,” he said.
He said the Supreme Court has directed for restoration of statehood to J&K “as soon as possible,” but even after 10 months of the order, the Centre remains reluctant to restore statehood.
“Our demand for restoration of full-fledged statehood under ‘Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq’ will continue to mobilise support and expose the BJP. We are now going for a chain hunger strike from August 9 to 21, hoping that the BJP will see reason and restore statehood to J&K during the ongoing Monsoon session of the parliament,” Sharma said.
The Congress staged similar demonstrations at all district headquarters.
An attempt by its workers to take out a rally was scuttled in Rajouri by police, who also briefly detained MLA Iftikhar Ahmad and several others.
Workers of the ruling National Conference, led by provincial president Rattan Lal Gupta, staged a protest outside party headquarters on Residency Road in Jammu.
The protesters had to abort their march when police stopped them, and they were forced to return to the party office.
PDP workers raised a demonstration outside party headquarters in the Gandhi Nagar area of the city.
