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NEW DELHI: As the ruling National Conference (NC) staged a protest in Delhi demanding the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti on Monday dismissed the demonstration as a “lacklustre and deliberately understated one-day event.“She argued that had the protest been held at Jantar Mantar—the capital’s designated venue for demonstrations—it would have echoed with slogans demanding the restoration of the Union Territory’s special status.“Instead of a lacklustre, deliberately understated and soft-pedalled one-day event at a random Delhi club without even a whimper about Article 370, imagine a protest in Jantar Mantar reverberating with slogans for reinstituting Jammu and Kashmir’s Special Status,” PTI quoted Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, as saying.Calling it “unfortunate”, Iltija Mufti claimed that the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir was attempting to “normalise” what she described as the “illegal and disempowering” abrogation of Article 370.The PDP, despite being invited by the NC, stayed away from the protest after laying down conditions for its participation. The party had insisted that the agitation’s agenda include demands for the restoration of Article 370, the release of political prisoners, and the lifting of the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami.In a letter to NC president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday, Mehbooba Mufti explained that the party had decided against joining a protest focused solely on the restoration of statehood.“After careful consideration and deliberations with my senior colleagues, I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fit for us to participate in a protest whose raison d’etre is solely and exclusively the demand for statehood,” she wrote.According to the letter, the PDP would participate in a protest at Jantar Mantar only if the restoration of Article 370, the release of political prisoners, and the lifting of the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami formed the core of its agenda.On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government revoked Article 370, which had granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. In October that year, the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
