Srinagar: CPI(M) leader and spokesperson for the People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Wednesday once again stressed the demand for restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to ETV Bharat, Tarigami said that in the meeting with the Prime Minister and Home Minister in Delhi, the PAGD was told that statehood would be restored at an "appropriate time."
"When the appropriate time will come?" he asked. Taking a dig at the central government he said that the time was appropriate to abrogate Article 370...the time is appropriate for elections and the Delimitation process...but the time is not appropriate for restoration of full statehood.
Tarigami also said that bridging the gap between the "heart and Delhi" is limited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rhetoric and fiction only. "If these words were true, the mainstream parties of Kashmir would have been allowed to visit the Shrine of the Martyrs of 1931 to pay homage, but it didn't happen," he expressed.
He said that the fact that mainstream parties were not allowed to visit the shrine of martyrs for the second year in a row was a testament to the confidence-building measures taken by the Center during the all-party meeting on June 24. The high-sounding claims of bridging the distance between the "heart and Delhi" are still proving to be a mirage.
The senior CPI (M) leader said that the confidence-building demands and suggestions put forward by the leaders of various political parties of Jammu and Kashmir to the Center have not been implemented. As a result, the parties in the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration are disappointed. Speaking over the delimitation process, the PAGD Spokesperson said that they are not against it but should be carried along with the rest of the country and the 2011 Census provides a guiding frame for the delimitation exercise.
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