Government should restore statehood to J&K before holding elections: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 27

Three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an outreach with mainstream J&K parties, the Congress on Sunday said the government should concede the demand for statehood first and elections later rather than the proposed timeline of delimitation, elections and then statehood.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Congress veteran and former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who attended the PM’s June 24 meeting, said if the government did not agree to the urge of UT mainstream parties, it would lead to confusion and confrontation between the Centre and the region.

“We have articulated our stand clearly in the meeting with the PM. We want statehood before elections,” he said. “The government should agree to our demand otherwise this issue will again create great confusion and confrontation between the Centre and J&K parties which is in the interest of neither the Centre nor the region. We need to avoid that confusion,” Azad said.

Accept our demand

The government should agree to our demand otherwise this issue will lead to confusion and confrontation between the Centre and J&K parties. Ghulam Nabi Azad, former cm

Make delimitation transparent: Congress

The J&K Pradesh Congress Committee has said Centre should ensure that the delimitation process is transparent and time-bound.

J&KPCC chief GA Mir said the Centre had promised to involve general public in the process of delimitation at the tehsil level, if need be.

The Congress leader also said the Prime Minister Modi must continue with the June 24-like outreach programmes and these should become more frequent. “The government should hold such meetings as the PM held at least once in every six months,” Azad said.

The Congress added that it would continue to press for its demands of restoration of full statehood to J&K with Azad adding, “The time for restoring statehood is ripe.”

Azad said the party would also keep insisting for a plan to have early polls in the UT, guarantee of domicile and job rights of the people there, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits and release of all political prisoners who continue to be held in prisons inside and outside of J&K.

The National Conference has already demanded full statehood with an independent J&K cadre restored as a measure of confidence building for people of the region. Azad also said today that it was up to the government now to rebuild the confidence.

The Congress is not a part of the Delimitation Commission which has as special invitees (associate members) all Lok Sabha MPs from J&K.