Page 41 - 31OCT2019E

• Hope for the best
Supreme Court will restore
J&K’s special position soon,
believes Hasnain Masoodi

the views of the state legislature. This history of 70 years. People closed their gle is within framework of constitution.
has created serious constitutional is- business on their own. They have pur- We ask all the stakeholders please
sues and that is why Supreme Court has sued a peaceful resistance. Public trans- uphold supremacy of your own consti-
not thrown out our half a dozen peti- port has been off the roads. Nobody has tution. It has neither done any good to
tions. It has admitted these for hearing, given a call for this. Nobody has given people of the state, nor to the country.
sent these to a larger bench and decid- a protest calendar. All leadership has Apart from the political struggle, one
ed to examine the constitutional valid- been detained. This is how people other aspect of our struggle is the legal
ity of the whole exercise. This shows Su- have voiced their disapproval of challenge we are putting up against
preme court is satisfied with the merits what the centre has done. Our party revocation of Article 370. Petitions have
of our case. National Conference is one with the been filed by people from every region,
people. We want restoration of special religion and community.
Case can drag on for decades. Take status. We want the government to
the example of J&K Resettlement rescind what it has done and go for National Conference leaders headed
Bill which has been pending before elections. We can discuss all the issues by Dr Abdullah had met the Prime
Supreme court since eighties. like gender justice, West Pakistan Refu- Minister Narendra Modi days before
That is true. But we have to have faith in gees, migrants etc. We can rectify wher- abrogation of the Article 370. What
the Supreme court. And we expect the ever any wrong has been done. But we did the PM tell you then?
Supreme Court to be alive to the sensi- can’t approve of this massive assault: We met the Prime Minister just three
tivity of the matter. Either ask the gov- they have burned down the building to days before Article 370 was abrogated.
ernment to put the revocation of Article its foundations. We requested him to please don’t do
370 on hold. We also expect the govern- anything to disturb Jammu and Kash-
ment to put its decision on hold be- What would be the nature of your mir. We told him Kashmir is enjoying
cause of constitutional propriety. When struggle? a good tourist season and Amarnath
the Apex court of the country decides to Of course, our struggle would be peace- Yatra was going so well.
examine the constitutional validity of a ful. Our case is ethical, moral, constitu-
government move, the government tional and historical. All options within What did the PM tell you?
should stay the implementation of the framework of law, within framework of He said nothing is going to happen. He
move to let the court first decide. constitution will be exercised. What we said we were unnecessarily worried
essentially demand is the supremacy about it. When we pointed to some
What would the NC do? Would you of Indian Constitution. We don’t ask measures being taken in Kashmir by
launch a struggle for the restoration anything beyond constitution. Kash- Government of India like deployment
of Article 370? mir issue has external dimensions of additional troops, the PM replied
We witnessed something strange in our also, which is different. But our strug- it was a routine exercise. He said that

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