Srinagar, July 9 (IANS) Former J&K Chief Minister and president of the ruling National Conference (NC), Farooq Abdullah, on Thursday invited 52 prominent political figures, religious and civil society members of the country to join his party’s protest for restoration of statehood to J&K at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

NC said on its X page: “The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference President, Farooq Abdullah, has reached out to political parties across Jammu & Kashmir and leaders from across the country, inviting them to join our peaceful, democratic protest at Jantar Mantar on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

“This is not about one party, one region, or one people. It is about defending India’s federal spirit, upholding the Constitution, and demanding the long-overdue restoration of Jammu & Kashmir’s Statehood, as repeatedly promised.

“We hope every democratic voice across the country will stand united in this collective cause. Silence.”

In his long letter to these people, Abdullah said delaying statehood to J&K “is not merely a delay. It is an affront to the democratic will of an entire people.

“I wish to impress upon you, my distinguished colleagues, that what is at stake here is not merely the sentiment or the status of the people of Jammu & Kashmir alone.

“The manner in which our State, once a constitutional entity with its own Assembly, its own government, its own identity – has been reduced and held in administrative subordination strikes at the very root of our federal polity.”

Abdullah also said that the Constitution of India is a federal document. The structure it envisions is one in which States are not merely administrative conveniences of the Union but living, breathing expressions of the democratic will of the people who inhabit them.

When that constitutional structure is compromised, when our State is stripped of its status and then made to wait indefinitely for what was promised as a temporary measure, all those who form a part of the democratic process of Jammu and Kashmir must stand at the very helm and forefront of the struggle to reclaim our lost rights and dignity we have been stripped of.

“I do not believe that any one of you, irrespective of party affiliations or ideological persuasions, joined public life to be a silent bystander to the erosion of the constitutional framework that we have all sworn to uphold.

“I therefore, on behalf of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, extend to you, with all the sincerity at my command, an earnest invitation to stand not just with the people but with the nation and what it stands for.

“Our protest shall be peaceful, democratic, and constitutional – as it must be, and as it shall be. We are not asking for anything beyond what was promised. Our demands shall not transgress from those which have already been promised to us.

“The cause of federalism is not the cause of one party, one people or one region. It is the cause of every citizen of India who believes that the genius of our constitutional order lies in the balance it strikes between unity and diversity.

“To stand for the restoration of Statehood to Jammu & Kashmir is to stand for the integrity of that balance – for the proposition that no people should be governed without their consent, and no promise made in Parliament should be allowed to lapse into convenient oblivion.

“I have spent my life in the service of the people of Jammu & Kashmir and of India. I have seen this land at its most turbulent and at its most hopeful. The people of Jammu & Kashmir have chosen hope – we have chosen the ballot, the Constitution, and the democratic process that all of us in some way or another have been a part of.

“We deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect. I count upon your solidarity. I count upon the democratic conscience that brought each one of us into the sphere of public life and to the service of our people and this great nation.

“Together, let us send an unambiguous message that the People of Jammu and Kashmir remain the guardians of the voice of those who have been made to wait too long,” the NC president said in his emotional appeal.

–IANS

sq/dan