Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Qayoom Wani, who contested the Lok Sabha election last year, on Thursday announced that he is quitting politics as a mark of protest against the Centre’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and divide it into two Union Territories.
“The Centre’s decision was unconstitutional and undemocratic. I had not joined politics to occupy a seat of power or earn money. I contested the Lok Sabha elections so that I can, in a very democratic way, express the aspirations of the people of J&K in Parliament and further strengthen J&K’s special status and seek a final solution of the Kashmir issue, which is also a humanitarian issue,” said Mr. Wani in a statement issued in Srinagar. He has spent six months in jail in his one-year-long political career.
Mr. Wani’s statement, coming after he was released on February 6, is possibly the first instance of a political leader taking a public position post-detention on the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision on J&K’s special status. Sources said all leaders who signed release bonds have been barred from issuing any statement on Article 370 and 35A for a period of one year.
A former government employees’ union president who resigned from his job to contest the parliamentary poll from Baramulla in north Kashmir last year, Mr. Wani said he expected that a strong government at the Centre would allow the beginning of a process of engagement with all parties holding different views on Kashmir.
‘Democracy murdered’
“Instead, the Centre decided to hurt the sentiments of the people of J&K and strangulated democracy. I will always raise my voice against the decision at every platform,” he said.
