Srinagar, Sept 11: Senior Vice President of J&K Awami National Conference, Muzaffar Shah, has said that the disintegration of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has paved the way for the Central Government’s unchecked overreach in Jammu and Kashmir.
Referring to the recent incident where AAP MP Sanjay Singh was stopped from meeting Dr. Farooq Abdullah over the detention of Doda MLA Mehraj Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA), Shah said the episode vindicated his long-held stance that breaking up PAGD was a “grave mistake.”
“This incident, like many others, clearly demonstrates how political disunity has emboldened the BJP to act without restraint, even against elected representatives. The PSA detention of an MLA and preventing Dr. Farooq Abdullah from meeting a Parliamentarian is a direct fallout of this political disaster,” Shah remarked.
He said those who supported the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories are now witnessing the consequences of their decisions. “Today, you are being made to experience the repercussions of what you endorsed,” he told Sanjay Singh.
Shah asserted that a united PAGD could have resisted arbitrary measures more effectively and safeguarded constitutional rights. “Fragmentation has made unilateral actions easier to impose with little accountability. Had NC, PDP, ANC, PC, CPI(M), JKPM, and Congress stayed united instead of succumbing to short-term vote bank politics, such excesses would never have been possible,” he added.
Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of MLA Mehraj Malik, Shah stressed that political cohesion among democratic forces is the only way to protect the rights of the people.
“The disintegration of PAGD was not just a tactical error but a strategic blunder. It has weakened our collective resistance and jeopardized the political future of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. There is an urgent need to revive democratic unity to safeguard and reclaim our constitutional rights,” he concluded.
