In a 3 hour meeting with the political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about removing “Dilli ki Doori as well as Dil Ki Doori” and guaranteed his commitment to restore the full statehood at the right time.
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The 3 hour meeting was attended by fourteen mainstream J&K leaders from eight political parties, including four Chief Ministers. It aimed at getting the political process back on course in the territory after it had lost its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019 and was deteriorated from a state into two Union Territories , J&K and Ladakh.
According to sources, PM Modi said statehood would be restored “at an appropriate time” but requested the parties to get on board with delimitation or the reforming of assembly constituencies to implement elections. It was said that elections can happen right after delimitation, and most participants showed willingness for it, said sources.
“The main focus of the meeting was to strengthen the democratic process. PM said that we are fully committed to the democratic process in J&K. He stressed that the holding assembly elections just like the successful District Development Council elections is a priority,” government sources said.
National Conference party’s, former CMs Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah last met with PM Modi on August 1, 2019. After three days later on August 4 when they were detained, both of them were stunned and later the abrogation of Article 370 was announced in parliament.
While announcing the colossal movie in parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had said that full statehood would be “restored at an appropriate time”. After this meeting, Mr Shah tweeted: “The future of Jammu and Kashmir was discussed and the delimitation exercise and peaceful elections are important milestones in restoring statehood as promised in parliament.”
However, Omar Abdullah, told reporters that “almost all leaders” were unhappy with delimitation only in J&K. “In other states, delimitation will be taken up in 2026, why has been J&K been singled out? We told the PM delimitation is not needed,” noted the former CM adding that “trust has broken between the Centre and Kashmir”.
The seven-party Gupkar alliance led by Farooq Abdullah and former CM Mehbooba Mufti, accorded front row status and pressed for restoration of full statehood and special status. “We will struggle for 370, be it months or years. We didn’t get this (special status) from Pakistan, but from India, Nehru. There can be no compromise on this,” said Ms Mufti.
As per sources, PM modi patiently heard suggestions and inputs from all participants and was happy that everyone shared their honest views. “It was an open discussion which revolved around building a better future for Kashmir,” they said.
This was the Central Government’s first outreach since August 2019 towards political leaders who have been seriously critical of the Article 370’s abrogation. To prevent any protests over the sweeping changes, many leaders who attended the meeting had been detained as part of security measures.
It was also decided that the J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha would set up a committee to analyse cases of political prisoners, including the released, the Abdullahs and Ms Mufti and also those still in detention.
