Not every Independent a collaborator, says Sajad Lone, promises to support any resolution on Article 370 in House

Lone was speaking while releasing the PC’s manifesto, which underscores the party’s commitment to fight for the restoration of Article 370, Article 35A and J&K’s statehood. The PC is expected to contest approximately 20 seats in the three-phase polls, J&K’s first in a decade.

“We firmly believe that a day will come when both Article 370, Article 35A along with statehood will be handed back to the people of J&k with the dignity they deserve,” the document states.

Emphasising that “we will all have to agitate together” for the restoration of Article 370, Lone said the now-abrogated provision was a “federal solution, an arrangement made with many provinces”.

“Such arrangements have been there for the last 200 years across the world… I believe as Indian democracy evolves, a day will come when we will have a federal solution at par with (Article) 370,” he said.

Hitting out against assertions that independent candidates were being “propped up” to divide voters in J&K, Lone said it was “unfair” as every independent candidate “cannot be a collaborator.”

“The mainstream was packed with people who were with the establishment after the eruption of violence in 1989. In all elections they have had the full backing of the establishment. Now these parties, who have a history of participation in killings, brand every person who comes to the mainstream space as collaborators,” he said.

The party manifesto also seeks a resolution to the Kashmir issue, saying its “amicable resolution” that takes into account the aspirations of its “main stakeholders” was key to peace and prosperity not only in J&K but the entire region.

The manifesto has also promised setting up of a ‘special judicial commission’ to ascertain the context and causes of the 1987 election “rigging” in J&K that, the party said, became an “inflection point” leading to violence. “The seismic event struck at the very core of Kashmir’s socio-political and ideological order, creating a vicious cycle of violence and destruction in its trail.”

Additionally, the PC has also promised to take up the issue of denial of police verifications, saying that “the inhuman practice of blacklisting of Kashmiris by security agencies which bars them from getting jobs, passports and government contracts is regrettable.”

Its other poll promises include rehabilitation of conflict victims, scrapping of laws such as the Public Safety Act, decriminalisation of dissent and restoration of July 13 as Martyr’s Day.