Srinagar: National Conference asserted that the vague, ambiguous and anti-people resolution passed by the State legislature to extend the GST to J&K, was an unequivocal compromise with the Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir and amounts to a surrender of the fiscal autonomy of the State as guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
In a meeting of the Party’s Core Group chaired by Party President Dr. Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar on Thursday, the National Conference apex political forum observed that the statement of the State Finance Minister Dr. Haseeb Drabu on the floor of the house terming the Article 370 of the Constitution of India as an obstruction to the development and progress of the State, reflects the machinations of the ruling dispensation against the special political and constitutional identity of J&K.
The Core Group meeting which was attended by Party Working President Omar Abdullah, General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, Senior Leaders and Core Group Members Abdul Rahim Rather, Muhammad Shafi Uri, Chaudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Muhammad Akbar Lone, Mian Altaf, Syed Aga Ruhullah Mehdi and Provincial President Jammu Devender Singh Rana, expressed that it is evident that the PDP has committed its total support to BJP’s ideological design to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution of India. The Party Core Group warned the PDP-BJP Government that this misadventure is going to have wider ramifications and dangerous consequences.
“In the garb of evolving a ‘consensus’, the State Government called a special session of the legislature to commit a monumental fraud on the people of Jammu and Kashmir by not explaining the contours of the safeguards in the GST regime that they have been repeatedly talking about over the last more than a month. The ruling alliance has used their majority in the legislature to muzzle the voice that reflected the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on this crucial and sensitive issue”, the Core Group stated.
The Core Group also noted with concern the BJP State Chief Sat Sharma’s statement on the floor of the House that the GST implementation was “the biggest slap on the face of the Separatists”, which is a glaring contradiction of earlier misleading assertions made by the PDP-BJP Alliance wrongly claiming that the extension of GST to the State was purely a taxation matter and had nothing to do with the politics and the identity of the State.
“The party feels that the PDP has yet again exposed the hollowness of its deceitful, much-touted political agenda of ‘Self Rule’ with the sole objective of remaining glued to political power. However, the Core Group reiterated that National Conference would continue to fight for the rights and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The party further said that it has always stood for the ‘Idea of Jammu and Kashmir’ as perceived and conceived by the founders of the party and would go to any extent to preserve it”, the Core Group added.
The Core Group further decided that the National Conference legislators will boycott the remaining part of the legislative session as a protest against the Government’s machinations to trample the aspirations of the people by demolishing the State’s special status. (KNS)
