Neetu Singh
JK News Today
Jammu, June 24:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the ball rolling for doing all the best things for the people of Jammu and Kashmir without placing any conditions except for seeking the people’s and leaders involvement in achieving this objective
Thursday’s all-party meeting at his residence with the leaders of the eight major national and regional political parties was all about the look ahead moment in partnership with the local stakeholders , demolishing the notion that Delhi and J&K were living in two different worlds.
Prime Minister’s assertion that “ security forces alone cannot change the situation , that is, to bring peace for progress of society, communities and all others having stakes in overall conducive atmosphere in the union territory that hopes to become the state. “ Killing of Kashmiris hurt us,” spoke of the pain that Modi felt about the people of Kashmir, and when he sought cooperation of the leaders he wanted them not just be the ones issuing condemnations and offering condolences but stopping the killings The key take away is not that how the step-by-step approach was listed by the Centre at the meeting underlined by Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, it was the attitude towards the participants. It was not patronizing but that of a sincere attempt to make them partners in the progress of J&K from today onwards.
Had that not been the case , the top leadership of the country would have interrupted the leaders like Mehbooba Mufti who called the August 5 , 2019 act of the Centre as “ unconstitutional and illegal” in as intense words as she could . This sense of accommodation was reflective of the faith of PM and HM in the dialogue being essence of the democracy.
Mehbooba and few others might have used strong words , but those were taken n in the right spirit and that is what kept the atmosphere of talks, first of its kind since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, cordial .There was never a moment of bitterness among the participants.
Somewhere in their hearts , the Central leaders felt that a society that has been bruised by the violence over decades and suffered economic woes because of the pandemic-inflicted lockdowns , needs healing touch of economic swabs and political empowerment. This gels with the democratic traditions of the country and the commitment of its people and leaders toward the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation . All the leaders in the meeting, some of whom were in detention after the August 5 decisions, took care of reiterating their faith in the nation building with democratic values. This was particularly true of Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah , his father Farooq Abdullah and Sajad Gani Lone, that’s what made the meeting purposeful in finding the way forward.
Many doubts were cleared as the central leadership and the J&K leaders , four chief ministers, four deputy chief ministers and heads of the parties placed their suggestions how to go about the Assembly elections – next level to the panchayat, BDC and DDC polls held so far.
Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated that the completion of the delimitation commission report was the first major step to hold the Assembly polls and his appeal to all the political parties to take part in it to expedite he whole thing spoke of the Centre’s conviction and commitment toward J&K and its people who have been yearning for the Assembly polls.
Prime Minister echoed his own commitment that he had made from the ramparts of Red Fort last year on the occasion of the 74thth Independence -Day on August 15, that he wanted J&K to have its own Assembly, MLAs, cabinet and Chief Minister .
There, he also insisted that the pace of the development needed to be further expedited for the overall progress of J&K and its people in all the fields.
