Altaf Husain – Former BBC Correspondent
“For the people of Kashmir, 5 August 2019 was the darkest day. On this day India’s political class breached the trust of weaker party (Jammu Kashmir) and snatched its semi-autonomy promised when the then Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to India with conditions of having central rule only in Foreign affairs, Communication and Defense. This was the written accord between the two parties and India on August 5, snatched it from us. So Kashmir’s would mark it as the blackest day of their history.”
GA Mir – President JKPCC
“It is not merely the matter of article 370, but it is a matter of an already well established state splitting into pieces. Jammu and Kashmir apart from its scenic beauty was also known for being the composite pluralistic state in India.
BJP under a concrete design have played havoc with such a beautiful state. They have degraded the people of J&K by their unconstitutional plots. With such a devastating move, no one even their own people won’t forgive them till eternity. When you see on ground no one is happy or celebrating its anniversary in entire Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress working committee’s resolution even clearly states that we will fight for the restoration of statehood with all constitutional guarantees in an order to regain the lost glory of erstwhile state which is battling hard on political and economic front now. The laws they (BJP) are implementing since a year are not people friendly and all efforts of communalizing politics in Jammu Kashmir by BJP won’t be working now. People have understood them and are fed up with their divisive politics.”
PDP Spokesperson – Tahir Sayeed
“It has been a year since the erstwhile state lost its special status in the constitution. It has been a year of deceit and betrayal. The lie they plotted their design upon both at the national and international level is now exposed to general masses.
BJP took advantage of being in majority and revoked the provisions of article 370 undemocratically and unethically. But nothing has changed since article 370 was abrogated. They promised it will bring peace and prosperity and separatism and militancy will end. But look at the ground and see if any of the promises made is fulfilled. Even after a year separatist sentiments have grown, even the people who were pro India were alienated, militancy rate is also on the rise and now talking about the development, JK was already faring well on socioeconomic indexes comparatively. According to HDI (Human Development Indices), JK ranked no. 1 in hilly states and number 10 in India.
India has an average of 21 per cent poverty rate. Gujarat was used as a model state by BJP in elections with 16 per cent poverty rate. While as JK instead of having conflict, landlocked, and being a hilly area has only 10 per cent of the poverty rate. There are around 500 business units in Jammu that belong to non-locals and to your surprise alamost 24 units are running in Kashmir that belong to outsiders thus there was no hurdle for investment in Jammu and Kashmir. If the investors were staying away, it was all because of political instability. BJP could have used the proper, legal, and democratic methods to deal with that but unfortunately, the methods that were opted have worsened the situation more.”
