By Abid Shah
New Delhi, June 22: The meeting on Jammu and Kashmir called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday is mainly meant for the exchange of views between the leaders from the erstwhile State and the Central Government. It is unlikely to go by any preset agenda. It is so as the Government continues to be tightlipped about the modalities to be followed in the meeting. Yet, indications are that besides the PM, a few of his aides and top officials too will attend the crucial meeting and most parties invited for the talks will attend.
From the Government’s side, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla are likely to be present. Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha will also be there to assist the PM. All these officials have been part of a series of preparatory meetings that took place under the watch of the Central Home Ministry through the run-up to the Thursday, June 24 all-party meeting.
The Government’s invitation to the leaders of mainstream political parties has largely been responded positively by the leaders and almost all invitees are likely to participate in the gathering, said sources. The meeting is expected to discuss the ongoing delimitation of electoral constituencies, possible time of elections in the newly carved out Union Territory and the demand of the province’s parties and leaders for the restoration of Statehood for J&K.
The Government is said to be favourably inclined to agree to most of these, including the last demand. This is claimed to be so since Amit Shah had assured the Lok Sabha in February that the Statehood could be restored at a suitable time. Thus far, there has been no indication that Thursday’s meeting would go into the question of special status for J&K as was the case under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution before it was scrapped on August 5, 2019, by Parliament.
However, this has been raised in Srinagar today by the People’s Democratic Party leader Mahbooba Mufti through the larger alliance of some of the J&K parties led by Farooq Abdullah (of which Mufti and PDP are a part of) has been silent about this. The alliance has expressed its willingness to attend the PM’s meeting. Congress has demanded the restoration of full Statehood to J&K without talking about Article 370, except that in a tweet the former Congress Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the Centre should restore the pre-August 5, 2019, position.
Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been invited to the meeting, was quoted today in a newspaper report here demanding complete Statehood for J&K.
Unlike confining himself to Statehood alone, Azad, a former J&K Chief Minister, had earlier vehemently opposed the repeal of Article 370. His latest stand like that of other leaders will now unfold in Thursday’s meeting even as the Government appears to be aiming at getting a stamp of approval from these leaders on consigning Article 370 to history.
As the Government’s move with regard to this article has been challenged in the Supreme Court, both the sides in case of differences cropping up on this in the meeting can well leave it to be decided by the top court, say the observers who are watching the current moves regarding J&K.
