Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Awami Ittehad Party’s Political Affairs Committee has, after detailed internal deliberations, authorised party president and Baramulla Member of Parliament Engineer Rasheed to take the final decision on the National Conference’s invitation to join its proposed protest for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
AIP Chief Spokesperson Inam Un Nabi said the party has formally conveyed the National Conference’s invitation to Rasheed through his legal team, given that the AIP chief continues to face legal proceedings. The spokesperson said the party has consciously left the decision in Rasheed’s hands, framing it as a matter to be resolved in the larger interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir rather than through unilateral party positioning.
Even as it conveyed the invitation, the AIP used the moment to revisit the National Conference’s political record since the 2024 assembly elections. According to the party’s statement, it intends to remind Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of a suggestion Rasheed had made in 2024: that the National Conference should not take oath as the ruling party under the Union Territory framework, and should instead wait until full statehood was restored before forming a government. The AIP noted that Abdullah himself had once described the office of Chief Minister under the current arrangement as comparable to that of a municipal chief, a remark the party now cites as an admission of the limitations of power without statehood.
Despite this, the statement said, the National Conference proceeded to form the government ahead of statehood’s restoration, effectively setting aside Rasheed’s counsel. The AIP went further, alleging that both Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti owe the people of Jammu and Kashmir an explanation for what it called the quiet disappearance of the Gupkar Alliance, the coalition of regional parties that had once presented a united front on Article 370 and statehood. The party argued that the alliance’s unravelling handed the BJP-led government room to consolidate its policies in the region, while sidelining voices such as Rasheed’s that it described as authentically representative of Kashmiri sentiment.
The AIP also revived a longstanding grievance that the National Conference had excluded it from the Gupkar Alliance’s formation while including smaller formations the party dismissed as having no real organisational presence beyond paper registration. It further alleged a shift in the National Conference’s core political messaging, contending that a party which once sought votes on promises of restoring autonomy and constitutional safeguards has since narrowed its stated agenda to the restoration of statehood alone.
The statement concluded by reiterating that Rasheed would weigh all aspects of the National Conference’s invitation before arriving at a decision he judges to be in the best interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, leaving the question of AIP’s participation in the proposed July protest still open.
