Declaring Article 370 restoration impossible undermines Kashmiris’ aspirations: Mehbooba Mufti
Says NC has normalized the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019
Srinagar:: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti has strongly criticized Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over his reported remarks on Article 370, saying any suggestion that its restoration is impossible gives people “a sense of defeat” and undermines their political aspirations.
According to Kashmir Media Service, reacting to Omar Abdullah’s reported statement that seeking the restoration of Article 370 from the present Indian government was unrealistic, Mehbooba Mufti questioned why the National Conference (NC) had included the issue in its election manifesto.
“To say Article 370 cannot be restored is to throw acid—not water—on the hopes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It gives people a sense of defeat. No leader should give his people a sense of defeat,” she said.
Mufti maintained that the restoration of Article 370 and Article 35A must remain central to any future resolution of the Kashmir issue, saying that the NC has reduced the territory’s political aspirations to the demand for statehood alone.
She said the public mandate received by the NC-led government extended beyond the issue of statehood and included addressing the larger political issues facing the territory.
“When a Chief Minister with such a brute majority says that every problem of Jammu and Kashmir will be solved by statehood, it is an injustice to the people. The mandate was not only for statehood but also for addressing bigger issues,” she said.
Accusing the National Conference of normalising the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019, Mufti said that focusing only on statehood while avoiding the issue of Article 370, and subsequently declaring its restoration impossible, amounted to accepting New Delhi’s unilateral actions. Comparing the situation to “cutting off someone’s legs and then asking them to take back their shoes,” she described it as a grave injustice to the people of IIOJK.
Commenting on the ongoing student protests in New Delhi, Mehbooba Mufti praised the demonstrators, saying they had reaffirmed that questioning those in power is not a crime in a democracy. She said the protesting students were “writing a new movement not only with their sweat but with their blood”.
