KINS Desk
SRINAGAR, Sep 26: Peoples Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone Saturday sacked Junaid Mattuu after the latter took on National Conference over Gupkar Declaration.
“J& K Peoples Conference would like confirm that Junaid Mattu is no longer associated with the party. The party’s association with Mattu has ended weeks back,” the PC said in its official Twitter handle.
The Peoples Conference announced the party’s decision minutes after Mattuu took on the National Conference over the Gupkar Declaration.
“I am glad the speculations have ended and there is a confirmation from both sides today that my association with Peoples’ Conference has come to an end,” Mattuu said in a statement to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
“This is something that has evolved over the last couple of months due to my differences on certain stands and issues,” he said.
He said, “In Sajad Lone I have always sought and found an elder brother and a mentor and I will continue to cherish my personal bond and association with him. I respect him and hold him in high esteem and that will remain unchanged.”
Mattuu said, “I however – strongly – believe that the party’s investment in the Gupkar Declaration is and will be reciprocated only by insincerity and disingenuity by the JKNC – and this time will prove NC’s blatant insincerity started with SMC but won’t end there.
I am of the firm opinion that we can’t allow August 5th to whitewash history and assume our history starts here. The complicity of today’s vanguards who were yesteryear’s facilitators of erosion and disempowerment – that can’t be erased or wished away.”
On August 22, political parties in Kashmir unanimously resolved to fight for restoration of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed pre-August 5, 2019, saying the measures taken were “spitefully shortsighted” and “grossly unconstitutional”.
The parties reiterated that they are bound, wholly, by the contents of the ‘Gupkar Declaration’, a resolution issued after an all-party meeting on August 4, 2019 at the Gupkar residence of NC president Farooq Abdullah.
The resolution at the end of the meet on August 4, 2019, a day before the Centre announced its decision of revocation of J-K’s special status and split it into two union territories, said the parties unanimously resolved that they would be united in their resolve to protect and defend the identity, autonomy and special status of Jammu and Kashmir against all attacks and onslaughts.
On August 22, over a year later, the parties issued a joint statement saying they adhere to the last year’s declaration.
“We all reiterate that we are bound, wholly, by the contents of the Gupkar Declaration and will unwaveringly adhere to it. We are committed to strive for the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A, the Constitution of J-K and the restoration of the state and any division of the state is unacceptable to us. We unanimously reiterate that there can be ‘nothing about us without us’,” the statement said.
The signatories of the joint statement include NC president Farooq Abdullah, incarcerated PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president G A Mir, CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone and Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference senior vice-president Muzaffar Shah.
