*PC, PDP accuse NC Govt of endorsing Aug 5 2019 changes*

Srinagar, Feb 04 : Peoples Conference and Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday accused the National Conference Government in Jammu and Kashmir of endorsing August 5, 2019 (abrogation of J&K’s special status) changes.

Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone and PDP legislator, Waheed Para, according to the news agency— reacted sharply over proposed deletion of references to J&K Constitution in business rules.

PC chairman and MLA Handwara, Sajad Lone wrote on X: “Endorsement of draft proposal prepared by Assembly secretariat regarding Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House will be the most explicit and unforgivable ratification of August 5, 2019 changes.”

“It will effectively end once and for all any scope for legal challenge to 5 August changes, in the future. While we dreamt of a an unambiguous resolution by the new assembly rejecting 5 August 2019, and that becoming a reference point in any future legal challenge —-now we have a shocker,” he wrote.

“The same Assembly is being used to bury any such chances of legal challenges in the future. The present assembly reflecting the will of people of J and K, will now be remembered as the endorser not the rejector of August 5 2019,” he added.
“The Assembly which we thought will be the voice of people of J and K is now a shameless rubber stamp of the perpetrators of August 5. The ruling NC led government purposely constituted a Committee which had 6 NC members and 2 BJP members. There was no one from the Kashmir based opposition parties or MLAs,” Lone wrote.
“This committee endorses all changes made on 5 August 2019. By virtue of this draft— they even take away references to J&K Constitution and bills governing permanent residents from the Rules. Such a cruel joke at the expense of people of Kashmir,” he said.

“Let me briefly summarise the NC BJP covert agreement to endorse and normalise 5 August 2019. First they script the context. NC starts the “ all are BJP” discourse. Second, the BJP mysteriously behaves in a manner which endorses that discourse. The discourse is strengthened and then elections are announced. While the people of J and K to some extent subscribe to the “ all others are BJP” discourse, the agencies led by a retired old war horse in uninterrupted engagement with the NC from the last 3 years, ensures total compliance of the agencies in favour of NC,” he wrote.

“This 42 seat lottery is a gift in order to endorse. The NC is the master endorser of all the changes that Delhi had brought in. Remember the older gifts in lieu of endorsements. 1975 gift of government with no MLAs to endorse erosions from 1950 to 1975. 1996 gift of government on a platter by conducting an exercise of selection in Kashmir and calling it election. That was to endorse the killings and acts of violence committed by the state. And now 2024 gift to endorse changes made on 5 August 2019. It is a curse to be an MLA of an assembly which will be remembered for endorsing 5 August,” Lone wrote.

Meanwhile, PDP MLA Waheed Para posted a screenshot of a news report on X which read: “The modifications have been proposed to make the rules in sync with the constitutional changes effected on August 5, 2019,” a member of the committee wishing to remain anonymous said.
“The modified J&K Assembly business rules mark a shift from Article 370, effectively endorsing the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019. A clear acknowledgment of the new status quo,” Para wrote on X—