Srinagar, Jan 22: Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti termed the government of India’s “admission that situation is not normal in Jammu and Kashmir” as “self contradictory.”  “After quite literally terrorising people of J&K into silence to create a false normalcy narrative, GOIs admission that the situation still isn’t normal is self contradictory,” she said in a tweet, adding, “ Also proves that silence shouldn’t be misconstrued as normalcy.”

Mehbooba was reacting to statement by Union Home Mnister Amit Shah’s Statement that while delimitation has started and elections will be held, statehood to J&K will be restored once “normalcy returns.”

“I’ve given assurance in Lok Sabha that as soon as the situation becomes normal in Jammu and Kashmir, statehood will be given back to J&K,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah said.

Reacting to it, former minister and Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone said “who will define normalcy”. And in a federal structure— can we really use normalcy as an excuse to assume power.

Irrespective of the definition of normalcy possibly coined by the union govt – every single stateless day is an affront to federalism and to the people of J & K

“But who will define normalcy. And in a federal structure— can we really use normalcy as an excuse to assume power,” he said in a tweet, adding, “Irrespective of the definition of normalcy possibly coined by the union govt – every single stateless day is an affront to federalism and to the people of J&K.”

He further said: “And to the people of India who are mute bystanders. Inshallah u too will one day taste statelessness and helplessness. Non popular governments mean a humiliating existence for the inhabitants of that particular place. We don’t wish it for even our worst enemies.”
enemies.”

The Party also questioned the Amit Shah’s claim of restoring Statehood to J&K and said how long the issue will be put in backburner aiming to divert the attention from the real issues.

J&KPCC Chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir expressed deep concern over the delay in delimitation process and said that people as well as political parties in J&K believe that the process is being delayed to buy time.

He said Govt must give timeline as to when the process of delimitation is completed?

“It was also astonishing to observe that on the one hand Govt  claims to have normalized the situation and on the other hand it makes another claim in same breath that statehood will be restored  after the situation was back to normal, which is indicative of contradiction within the system,” J&KPCC President said and asked Govt of India to clear its position  and tell the people as to when the Statehood will be restored to people of J&K.

This post was published on January 22, 2022