In a significant development, prominent Kashmir political leaders, including two former Chief Ministers, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, did not attend on Saturday Round Table Conference on Jammu and Kashmir organised by political analyst and Track II diplomat OP Shah in New Delhi.
The meeting was attended by Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyyar, OP Shah, NC leader Tanvir Sadiq, former Minister Harshdev Singh, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat (People’s Conference), Muzaffar Shah (Awami National Conference), Kapil Kak and other New Delhi political figures.
Other political leaders who were invited but did not attend the conference include Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami (CPM), Hasnain Masoodi, National Conference Lok Sabha member from Anantnag and Altaf Bukhari, chairman of Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP).
The absence of senior Kashmiri politicians from OP Shah’s ‘Centre for Peace and Progress’ roundtable conference was deemed significant by political observers. The conference, titled ‘Another Look at Article 370 and 35A,’ lasted about four hours and was held at the India International Centre.
The National Conference sent Tanvir Sadiq, its chief spokesperson, to the meeting, while the PDP and CPM did not send anyone.
Muzaffar Shah, a senior vice president of the Awami National Conference and a prominent leader of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), confirmed that Abdullahs, Mehbooba Mufti, and Tarigami were not present at the meeting.
The round table conference, according to Shah, called for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, the immediate holding of Assembly elections, the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, and the hearing of cases filed in the Supreme Court under Articles 370 and 35A.
Harshdev questioned the logic behind the repeated postponement of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that only a legitimate and elected government could deal with subservient challenges.
According to Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, a senior leader of the People’s Conference, the conference also discussed the state of the economy, unemployment, and security in Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to Article 370, the restoration of statehood, the conduct of Assembly elections, and the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley.
When asked about the absence of senior political leaders from the conference, Bhat stated that Omar Abdullah does not usually attend such gatherings, but Farooq Abdullah does. All participants invited to the meeting shared their perspectives on the topics on the agenda.
Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the city said they had not been invited to the conference. Furthermore, they stated that they do not want to attend such conferences because Articles 370 and 35A are no longer relevant and that parties such as the National Conference, PDP, and others should forget about them.
However, BJP leaders have stated that they support holding early Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have stated that J&K will be granted statehood at the appropriate time.
While Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyyar attended the conference, there was no J&K party leader in attendance. However, it was not immediately clear whether any Congress leaders from J&K had been invited to the meeting.
