Will seek 370 restoration through Supreme Court, says Junaid Azim Mattu

Junaid Azim Mattu, mayor of Srinagar and spokesperson J&K People’s Conference, speaks to Anubhuti Vishnoi on the restrictions in Jammu & Kashmir and plans to challenge abrogation of Article 370 in Supreme Court. (Under detention in Srinagar, Mattu was in New Delhi for medical treatment.) Excerpts:
Current situation
While the communication blackout has created a situation where specifics are speculative, it is safe to assume the ground situation can’t possibly be anywhere near normal. The media and administrative narrative seem content in defining ‘normalcy’ in a purely operational context. If the absence of dead bodies is the new definition of ‘normalcy’, what can one possibly say?

The more important question is about the psychological repercussions of these developments on a collective psyche, which perhaps feels robbed of a sense of identity and dignity...

Strategy ahead
Our party believes the abrogation of Article 370 is a travesty of justice that strikes at the very root of the state’s constitutional relationship with the Union. Article 370 is the pivot around which the state’s sense of unique identity existed. We have always believed Article 370 and Article 35-A are sacrosanct and non-negotiable. We have consulted senior-most constitutional experts and luminaries and will be contesting the move in the Supreme Court. Our party chairman (Sajjad Gani Lone) has, before he was arrested, appealed to the people to maintain calm and not resort to any violent means of expressing their anguish and sense of loss.

Political situation
The persecution of mainstream workers is shocking beyond belief. Their families are also being subjected to humiliation and harassment. In a lot of instances, it seems police officers at the district and local level are settling personal scores.

Several of my party men are under detention. I was detained without any orders being shown to me.

Path ahead for mainstream parties
The mainstream now will need to sit together and recalibrate its approach with a greater sense of responsibility to struggle for the rights of the people it has represented. There is a larger struggle for the mainstream, and one hopes it collectively rises to the occasion. What the possible strategy could be, can only be answered when the leaders are released.

Local body elections

The urban local bodies and panchayat bodies are meant for local and decentralised modes of governance. To look at these as some sort of a bulk replacement or alternative laboratory for the entire mainstream in the state in the current situation would be another travesty and highly unrealistic. Also, if the successful conduct of these polls — where I contested and was elected — has been underlined as an achievement (of the administration), then why have people who have been elected in these elections been detained?

Have NC and PDP let down people of Kashmir?

Now is not the time to delve into these questions. As our chairman has said, this issue is much bigger than all parties.

Association with BJP

Our party, with its two legislators, was a part of the previous PDP-BJP government. This ceased for us (PC) once the government ceased to exist.

Centre’s special packages

Kashmir has always been essentially a political problem. The myth that Article 370 inhibited the state’s economic growth remains a myth and I am certain economic packages won’t make the people get over their aspirational or ideological moorings.

Entrenched corruption in J&K

How did Article 370 prevent the government from acting against corruption? How did J&K being a state and not a union territory curtail established institutions of accountability and probity? The J&K Bank probe is ongoing, but to somehow use that as a pivot to justify the abrogation of Article 370 — there is no basis to that argument.

Way forward
The communication clampdown has created a humanitarian situation and people need to be allowed to communicate and express themselves peacefully and non-violently. The mainstream leaders need to be released and allowed a fundamental right to disagree with and contest what has been done and to express their views freely.