Ruling JKNC chief Dr Farooq Abdullah and JKPDP president Mehbooba Mufti have raised serious concerns over the delay in the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and slammed the LG administration for banning 25 books discussing the Kashmir issue in the India Bloc meeting.
According to a report, the informal meeting occurred at Rahul Gandhi’s residence, which saw nearly 50 leaders from 25 Opposition parties.
The meeting, according to the report, focused on the wrongdoings of the Election Commission of India, particularly in the context of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar.
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that over one lakh votes had been “stolen” in Karnataka by the BJP with assistance from the Election Commission.
He described the act of vote chori as “an atom bomb on our democracy”.
Taking the moment of opportunity, Dr Farooq once again slammed the Union government for delaying the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.
He said, “The Centre is yet to fulfil its promise. The people of Jammu and Kashmir deserve the democratic dignity that full statehood guarantees.”
On the book-banning row, he condemned the move by saying, “This is unconstitutional; suppressing intellectual voices sets.”
Meanwhile, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti expressed similar sentiments, stating that the Central government’s deafening silence has further alienated the region’s youth. “There is growing disillusionment. Democratic rights cannot be selectively applied. The ban on books and the silence on statehood only deepen mistrust,” she warned.
As per reports, top Opposition leaders that attended the meeting organised by Rahul Gandhi were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, SharadPawar (NCP-SP), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Kamal Haasan (MNM), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML), M A Baby (CPI-M), and Tiruchi Siva (DMK).
Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), and Revanth Reddy (Telangana) were also in attendance.
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