Srinagar, Dec 18: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) leaders will attend the Delimitation Commission’s associate members meeting in New Delhi next week, party MP Hasnain Masoodi said on Saturday.
He, however, said, there was no shift in the party’s stand that the exercise offends the spirit of the Constitution.
Seeing the overall scenario, the party has decided that its MPs will attend the meeting, Masoodi, the MP from south Kashmir’s Anantnag, said.
He said since the commissions cannot travel to the length and breadth of the Union Territory, they cannot hear what people have to say.
So, we will take the people’s viewpoint to the commission, he said, adding all three MPs from the party — NC president Farooq Abdullah, Akbar Lone and himself — will arrive in Delhi.
The NC MP said the party had written to the commission seeking seek its agenda, but there was no response.
We want to know what their agenda is. We had asked them to submit the agenda of the meeting as well as the relevant supporting material. But, they did not. So, we have to go there to see what their agenda is…, he said.
Stressing that the party had not changed its stand on the matter, he said, …This is not something new. The party (had earlier) met the commission on its Srinagar visit, submitted memorandum saying it is not a permissible route in the Constitution. We stand by that. There is no shift in our stand that this exercise offends the spirit of the Constitution he said.
He said the right thing for the government would have been to restore the August 4, 2019, position – a day before the Centre revoked the erstwhile state’s special status — and then proceed with the delimitation.
The NC had boycotted the first associate meeting of the commission in February saying the exercise was an outcome of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act-2019, which the party had challenged in the Supreme Court.
It said participation in the proceedings of the commission was tantamount to accepting the August 5, 2019, changes.
Meanwhile, Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone hit out at the NC for multiple speak .
Please atleast have the courtesy to show even some pretence and explain how it was tantamount to endorsement then and not now. Digital world. Digital proof. Chit bhi meri patt be meri won’t work. Era of Multiple speeches in srinagar and Delhi in multiple places is over (sic), Lone wrote on Twitter.
The remarks of Lone, who was earlier in the separatist camp before switching over to the mainstream in 2009 and grew close to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run up to the 2014 elections, came after his party put out tweets criticising the NC.
These are the utterances of Dr. Farooq Abdullah. What changed between then and now for the NC to now participate. Is it not tantamount to endorsing August 5 decisions now. There is a limit on monopoly on morality, the Peoples Conference tweeted referring to Abdullah’s remarks that the party will attend the meeting.
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‘Have no faith in delimitation commission’
Jammu, Dec 18: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday that she had no faith in the delimitation commission which was “working on the BJP’s agenda”.
She also accused the BJP of using National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to demoralise her party because of its moves to expose the saffron party’s “false narratives” but said “the PDP is not going to be cowed down by such steps”.
“As far as the delimitation commission is concerned, it is BJP’s commission. Their attempt is to pitch the majority against the minority and further disempower the people. They want to increase the (assembly) seats in such a way to benefit the BJP,” Mehbooba told reporters after addressing a youth convention in Rajouri district.
She said the PDP has no faith in the delimitation commission.
Asked for her comment on the decision of the National Conference to participate in the delimitation commission’s associate members meeting in New Delhi next week, the former chief minister said, “It is their decision and what else can I say about that.”
On the Jammu and Kashmir government’s changes in the land use laws enabling conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes, Mehbooba claimed that it is a wrong decision and part of a “conspiracy of the hidden agenda of the BJP”.
“They want more and more people from outside to come and buy land here to engineer a demographic change,” she alleged.
About NIA’s reported summon to PDP district Development Council (DDC) member and vice chairman DDC Ganderbal Bilal Ahmad to New Delhi for questioning in connection with a case on December 23, Mehbooba said since her party is raising its voice against their narrative and debunks their claim of restoration of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, they are “using ED and NIA to silence the party”.
“They don’t have anything else against us. They cannot fight us politically and hence they are using ED and NIA to demoralise us. However, the PDP is not going to be cowed down by such moves and we are not going to stop,” she said.
