Image Credit: twitter.com/PMOIndia
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday afternoon, chaired a meeting with leaders of all the mainstream political parties of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kashmiri leaders in attendance included all four chief ministers of the erstwhile state- Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah of the National Conference(NC), Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP and Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress party. Leaders from the People’s Conference, CPI(M), J&K Apni Party and J&K Awami National Conference also attended the meeting in Delhi.
PM Modi was accompanied by Home Minister Amit Shah, J&K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
The Modi government has not revealed any particular agenda to be discussed at the meeting. However, the revival of the political process in the UT of J&K is expected to be on the table. PM Modi is likely to convince Kashmiri leaders to cooperate with the delimitation commission set up to redraw the political map of J&K.
Former CM Farooq Abdullah told reporters in Delhi that he would keep his demands at the meeting. The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration(PAGD), an alliance of seven J&K parties including Abdullah’s NC will primarily demand the restoration of Article 370 and 35-A along with making J&K a state again.
The alliance had successfully fought the District Development Council(DDC) elections together last year, winning 112 seats out of 280 including a majority of seats in the Kashmir Valley. The Congress party is not a part of the PAGD.
Meanwhile, sources in the central government told NDTV that the time to restore J&K’s statehood had not come yet. Today’s meeting is the first reach out to the political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on part of the central government since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. As political leaders from J&K visit Delhi, security has been beefed up in the Kashmir Valley in view of the importance of the meeting.