'Cause of federalism is not of one party,' says NC in invite to 52 leaders to join Delhi protest

Srinagar, Jul 9 (PTI) The National Conference has written to 52 leaders of political and religious outfits across the country, inviting them to join the party's upcoming protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The party has sent out the invitation, written by its president Farooq Abdullah and a copy of which was released to the media. The invitees include Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi (who is also the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha), along with heads of regional parties, including M K Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Arvind Kejriwal, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, K Chandrashekar Rao, Asaduddin Owaisi, and Sukhbir Singh Badal. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam president C Joseph Vijay, CPI general secretary D Raja, and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal have also been invited. From Jammu and Kashmir, former chief ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is chairman of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party, and Mehbooba Mufti, chief of the Peoples Democratic Party have been invited along with Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Paul Sharma, Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari, Peoples Conference chief Sajjad Lone, J-K Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra, CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, and Awami Ittehad Party chief and MP Engineer Rashid. Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir and chief of Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulema, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Kashmir's Grand Mufti, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam, have also been invited. In the invitation, Abdullah said he reached out to them over a shared sense of responsibility towards the upliftment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. "On the commencement of the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference shall gather at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to register our solemn and democratic protest against the unconscionable delay in the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir," the letter said. It said that on August 5, 2019, a "historic and deeply flawed decision" was taken to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution of India, bifurcate the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and reduce it to the status of two Union Territories, a decision that remains unprecedented even today. "At that moment, solemn assurances were extended from the floor of Parliament that statehood would be restored 'at an appropriate time'. We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, have remained dignified and patient as we accepted these assurances in good faith. We did not take to the streets. We went, instead, to the ballot box," he said. Abdullah said elections were conducted smoothly and peacefully in 2024, and people returned their mandate with confidence and hope. "An elected government now functions in Jammu and Kashmir under Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. And yet, statehood -- that most basic constitutional right, that most elementary unit of self-governance in a federal democracy -- remains withheld and elusive to us. There is no explanation forthcoming. There is no timeline offered. There is only silence. This is not merely a delay. It is an affront to the democratic will of an entire people," he said. The National Conference chief said what is at stake is not merely the sentiment or the status of the people of Jammu and Kashmir alone, but the manner in which the state -- once a constitutional entity with its own assembly, government and identity -- has been held in administrative subordination, which strikes at the very root of federal polity. He said the Constitution envisions a political structure where states are not merely administrative conveniences of the Union, but living, breathing expressions of the democratic will of the people who inhabit them. "When that constitutional structure is compromised, when our state is stripped of its status and made to wait indefinitely for what was promised as a temporary measure, all those who form a part of the democratic process of Jammu and Kashmir must stand at the very helm and forefront of the struggle to reclaim our lost rights and dignity we have been stripped of," the three-time chief minister said. He reminded the invitees that none of them has, irrespective of party affiliations or ideological persuasions, joined public life to be a silent bystander to the erosion of the constitutional framework that they have sworn to uphold and invited them to join the National Conference's protest at Jantar Mantar. He said the protest shall be peaceful, democratic, and constitutional as it must be. "The cause of federalism is not the cause of one party, people or region. It is the cause of every citizen of India who believes that the genius of our constitutional order lies in the balance it strikes between unity and diversity," Abdullah wrote. The NC president said that to stand for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir was "to stand for the integrity of that balance: for the proposition that no people should be governed without their consent, and no promise made in Parliament should be allowed to lapse into convenient oblivion". He reminded that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have chosen hope. "We have chosen the ballot, the Constitution, and the democratic process that all of us in some way or another have been a part of. We deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect," he added. PTI SSB RUK RUK