Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 11: The Supreme Court verdict upholding the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, which bestowed special status to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, has disappointed former Chief Ministers, their parties and some other non-BJP political outfits.
National Conference Vice-President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he is disappointed but not disheartened by the Supreme Court verdict. “It took the BJP decades to abrogate the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution. We are also prepared for the long haul,” he said while streaming live on ‘X’.
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Abdullah said the NC would consult lawyers to see if there was any possibility to take a further legal course. Apart from the legal fight, there will be a political and constitutional fight which will be fought within the ambit of law, he added.
Chairman of Democratic Progressive Azad Party, Ghulam Nabi Azad has termed the Supreme Court verdict as sad and unfortunate, but said that ‘we have to accept it’.
He claimed that people of the region were not happy with the verdict delivered by the five-judge bench of the apex court. “But we have to accept it,” he added.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said that Supreme Court verdict was nothing less than a death sentence and marked the defeat of the idea of India with which the Muslim majority State had acceded in 1947.
“This is the defeat of the imagination of India, the Gandhian India with which Muslims of J&K rejecting Pakistan, joined hands with the Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christians, the country of Gandhi. Today marks the defeat of that idea of India,” she said in a video message on X and urged the people of J&K and Ladakh not to be disheartened or lose hope over the apex court decision.
Expressing disappointment over the Supreme Court verdict, People’s Conference chief Sajjad Lone said that Article 370 may have been legally obliterated, but will always remain part of their political aspiration.
Apni Party, in a statement issued here, said the Supreme Court verdict has deeply saddened the J&K people as they had been led to believe that Article 370 was permanent. “The verdict has now clarified that the Article is gone forever, leaving people deeply disheartened. It is the responsibility of the Central Government to come forward and assure the people that they will not be subjected to disempowerment,” reads the statement, adding that the Government should bring the domicile law into the constitutional framework in a way that guarantees the exclusive rights of the residents of J&K to land and jobs.
In his reaction, former Union Minister and veteran Congress leader, Prof Saifuddin Soz said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir must approach the ‘People’s Court’ and start a strong, sustained, democratic and Constitutional movement for restoration of their ‘Internal Autonomy’ that was enshrined in the Article 370.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that the Supreme Court verdict is disturbing and has serious consequences for the federal structure of the constitution, which is one of the fundamental features.
People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone expressed disappointment with the SC’s decision on Article 370. “The Supreme Court’s decision on Article 370 is disheartening. Once again, justice seems out of reach for the people of J&K.”
“Article 370 may be legally erased, but it will always be a part of our political aspirations,” Lone said in a statement.
Observing that people of Jammu are particularly concerned and apprehensive about their lands and jobs in the wake of abrogation of Article 370, NC Additional General Secretary Ajay Kumar Sadhotra said that the party rank and file will stand like rock behind the resolve of the leadership for the long struggle.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has observed that the biggest losers of the Union’s decision to abrogate Article 370 will be the Dogras of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh, who will have to face demographic change. “There was no doubt that the state is an integral part of India, but being an integral part does not mean that it did not have a distinct constitutional relationship with the Union, he claimed.
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