Srinagar, Aug 5 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President and Omar Abdullah on Wednesday reiterated his party’s commitment to reversing the changes made to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, saying seven years on, they had neither forgotten nor reconciled with the circumstances created following the abrogation of Article 370.
Marking the seventh anniversary of the Centre’s August 5 decisions, Omar said his party remained committed to restoring what he described as the rights taken away from Jammu and Kashmir and protecting its identity.
“7 years, we haven’t forgotten & we haven’t reconciled far less accepted our current circumstances. My party & I remain committed to reversing all that was done to J&K that took away our rights & threatens our identity,” Omar said on X.
Quoting Robert Frost’s famous lines from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Omar added: “The woods are lovely, dark & deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep……..”
Peoples Conference chairman and MLA Sajad Lone described August 5, 2019 as a “brutal coup” against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“August 5, 2019 was a brutal coup against the people of J & K. It will be held up with contempt and disdain by the people of J & K, for all times to come,” he said on X.
“The day of disempowerment of the people of J & K. When everything was taken away. Article 370, Article 35 A. And to add salt to the wounds, J & K was relegated to a UT. I hope a day will come when people of India will understand that these were promises made to the people of J & K on the eve of accession. And gradually all the promises were reversed. And whatever little was left for the people of J & K to cling on to, was brutally taken away on August 5, 2019,” he added.
Lone said he hoped the people of Jammu and Kashmir would be “empowered again as matter of right and not as a matter of charity.”
The Narendra Modi led BJP government on August 5, 2019 abrogated the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.
Parliament subsequently passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which bifurcated the erstwhile state into the union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
