Nearly a year after New Delhi’s historic but controversial action of changing the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, and breaking the erstwhile State into two Union Territories (UTs), the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) leaders and former Chief Ministers, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, have broken their silence on Sunday, 26 July 2020.
In an interview with Sheherbeen, a current affairs programme of All India Radio’s Srinagar station, Farooq, for the first time since he was detained on 5 August 2019, asserted that he and his NC were committed on the Gupkar Declaration—the unanimous resolution of all mainstream parties, with the singular exception of the BJP, that abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A, granting and protecting special status to J&K, would not be acceptable. Separately, Omar in an article written for The Indian Express, pledged to stay away from elections as long as J&K remained UT.