An amalgam of various political parties- Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration- Saturday elected National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah as its president and decided to come out with a white paper comparing the governance in Jammu and Kashmir before and after the abrogation of Article 370.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was chosen as party’s vice-president, CPI (M) leader M Y Tarigami has been appointed as a convener, Sajad Lone of People’s Conference has been named as the spokesperson while NC leader Hassnain Masoodi will be its coordinator.
Talking to media after two-hour deliberation at Mufti’s Fairview residence, Farooq Abdullah said that the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration is an “anti- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)” but not “anti-national” as has been projected in India by the right-wing party.
“The BJP is doing propaganda that the Gupkar Declaration is being formed by the leaders are anti-national. The group is not anti-national but anti-BJP,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah, a former chief minister, said the BJP has tried to break the federal structure of India by acts like abrogation of Article 370 last year.
“The BJP is trying to destroy the constitution of this country. They have tried to divide this nation on the basis of religion,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah said that the newly floated Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration would not only fight for the rights of Kashmir but for the people of Jammu and Ladakh as well.
On October 16, six political parties including the National Conference, Congress, PDP, Peoples Conference, CPM and Awami National Conference (ANC) formed an alliance pledging to work for the restoration of Article 370. The signatories of the alliance had met for the first time since August 2019, after Mehbooba Mufti was released from 14 months of detention.
Mehbooba was detained along with all mainstream political leaders hours before the Government of India (GoI) nullified Article 370 and re-organised J&K into two Union Territories (UTs) on August 5, 2019.
Party’s spokesperson Sajad Lone said that the alliance would come out with a white paper within a month comparing the governance in Jammu and Kashmir before and after the abrogation of Article 370.
“The white paper will not be rhetoric. “It will be based on facts and figures to present the reality to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and around the country… An impression is being given that all the corruption had happened in Jammu and Kashmir only,” Lone said.
The alliance also decided to hold its next meeting after a fortnight in Jammu, followed by a convention in Srinagar on November 17.
Lone said that all the parties have decided to adopt the erstwhile state flag as its party symbol.