Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was on Saturday unanimously chosen as the chairman of the recently-floated Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti will be his deputy, the amalgam said.
CPM leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami is the convenor of the alliance, while Sajad Lone of People’s Conference has been named as the spokesperson.
The amalgam leaders, who met at the residence of Mehbooba Mufti for the first time after its formation, adopted the flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir as its symbol.
The alliance will come out with a white paper within a month on governance in Jammu and Kashmir over the past one year since the abrogation of Article 370, Lone told reporters after the meeting.
“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.
Also read: Gupkar Declaration a blessing in disguise for the Modi govt to set things right in Kashmir
Anti-BJP, not anti-national
Abdullah on Saturday said the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), which is fighting for restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is an anti-BJP platform but not an anti-national amalgam.
“I want to tell you that this false propaganda by the BJP that the PAGD is anti-national. I want to tell them that this is not true. There is no doubt that it is anti-BJP but it is not anti-national,” he told reporters.
Abdullah said the BJP has tried to break the federal structure through acts like abrogation of Article 370 and dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
“They have tried to destroy the constitution of the country, they have tried to divide the nation, to break the federal structure which we saw what they did on August 5 last year, the NC president said.
“I want to tell them that this (PAGD) is not an anti-national jamaat. Our aim is that people of Jammu Kashmir, and Ladakh should get their rights back. That’s where our battle is, our battle is not for more than that,” he said.
Abdullah said the BJP was doing propaganda against the constituents of the PAGD in Jammu and elsewhere in the country.
“They are trying to divide us (people of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh) in the name of religion. This attempt will not succeed. This is not a religious battle, this is a fight for our identity and for that identity, we are standing together,” he said.
Also read: Not ready to take any oath without J&K flag and constitution, says Mehbooba Mufti
The alliance needs to come out with a white paper on the Kashmiri Pandits. The 370 & 35A is done. The only way it can come back in a democracy is by required numbers in the Parliament.
The religious battle has suddenly turned into a fight for identity minus the Pandits.
Nation divided, constitutions destroyed, federal structure broken and award wapsi, is the same broken record being played now by the GUPKARIs, most of whom are old and spent forces, they will be held to account for corruption in due course. The police force which was being used as the goons in uniform are returning to their constitutional duties which is the main problem.
When both Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba are both openly sympathetic to separatists since decades, their alliance is definitely anti-India. BJP is not India.