Sajad Gani Lone, chairman of the People's Conference (PC), said on Thursday that all of the leaders who attended the recent all-party meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 24 “made the people of J&K proud.”
“The participants from Jammu and Kashmir in the all-party meeting made their people proud as they reflected the pain in a befitting manner, ” news agency KNO quoted Line as saying at a presser today.
PC leaders Basharat Bukhari and Imran Reza Ansari were also present on the occasion.
Lone said that it was “obvious that those who will reach New Delhi to represent people can never disrespect the sentiments of people”.
“I would give equal marks to all who participated in and spoke in the meeting,” he said.
“As on date, there were no winners or losers. It's a long process. We have to ensure that Delhi delivers and we have to make an enabling environment for them to deliver and that cannot be done by rhetoric, ” Lone further said.
He said that India “is a land of elections”.
“There is an election every six or eight months. Let us not buy rhetoric and create an environment where delivery becomes difficult. If delivery becomes difficult or delayed, there is only one loser and that is the people of J&K,” he added.
Lone said as one of the parties who participated there in the meeting, the PC “will strive to create an enabling environment to facilitate Delhi in delivering, to facilitate delivery mechanisms by Delhi.”
Asked about the assurances over restoration of statehood after elections, Lone said, “I would say that the statehood should be restored now”.
“Not as a matter of charity, but as a matter of right, it should be restored now. I wouldn't link elections with statehood,” he said.
The PC chairman made it clear that he wouldn't boycott the elections.
“I will not say that I will boycott the elections and the party will contest. We are equal. I am not more moral than them. We will fight equally,” he said.
Lone said that there is a “need to understand that boycotting elections has yielded no results”.
We should look at the other side as well as keeping away the opponents could be a trap,” he said.
Replying to a query, he said that the party will participate in the delimitation exercise if it is invited, saying that the process “has to be fair within the regions and across the regions”.
