For the first time post August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, major opposition parties, including National Conference, Congress, PDP, CPI(M) and the CPI held a joint dharna at the Maharaja Hari Singh Park in Jammu Monday. The parties warned the government of intensifying their agitation if the constitutional and democratic rights of the people were not restored.

Though National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, both former chief ministers, were not present, the over three-hour-long dharna assumed significance as it came a day after both NC and Congress together got two-third majority in Kargil’s Ladakh Hill Development Council.

Moreover, leaders of both the parties among others sat in front of the statue of Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Dogra ruler of undivided Jammu and Kashmir, (which also had areas of the present Pakistan occupied Kashmir) who was made to hand over reins of his government to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and leave his state to live in exile in Mumbai in 1949.

Many elderly people in Jammu division remember that how on June 20, 1949, all the three members of the then royal family embarked upon their lonely journeys, with Maharaja Hari Singh riding a train to Bombay, his wife moving to Kasauli by road and son Dr Karan Singh flying to Srinagar as the regent of the Dogra ruler.

Apart from Congress, the NC and the PDP, prominent among others attending the dharna included leaders of the J&K National Panthers Party, Shiv Sena, Aam Aadmi Party, CPI, CPI(M), Rashtriya Janata Dal, J&K People’s Movement, Dogra Sadar Sabha, J&K Shia Federation, NCP and the JDU.

All the leaders emphasised the need to unite to press the Central government to hold early assembly elections and to defeat the BJP in the electoral battle.

The leaders said, “This was the need of the hour as they (BJP) have ruined the erstwhile state by downgrading it into a Union Territory and imposing all kinds of taxes, including property tax, and setting up toll plazas on the highways.”

They added that all sections of society were angry with the saffron party in view of the rising unemployment, rampant corruption and denial of their constitutional and democratic rights. They also hinted at inviting leaders of the opposition’s INDIA alliance to attend their protest in the near future.

Meanwhile, Congress’ J&K president Vikar Rasool Wani threatened to intensify the agitation by organising a gherao of the civil secretariat and Raj Bhawan if the elections are not held and the statehood is not restored to Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest.

Referring to the outcome of hill development council results in Kargil, Wani said that the BJP was scared of holding municipal and panchayat elections in the UT as it was sure of its route in the electoral battle.

Others who spoke on the occasion included NC’s additional general secretary and former minister Ajay Sadhotra, former CPI(M) MLA YY Tarigami and PDP’s senior vice president Hamid Chowdhary.

The decision to hold a dharna in Jammu, according to political observers, was aimed at highlighting the simmering unrest among the people in the otherwise peaceful region of the UT where the BJP had during the 2014 Assembly polls bagged for the first time 25 seats and entered the corridors of power after forging a post poll alliance with the PDP.

Even in the present Lok Sabha, both the Jammu and the Udhampur parliamentary seats are represented by BJP MPs Dr Jitendra Singh, an MoS in the PMO, and Jugal Kishore Sharma.

The move comes when the Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on the abrogation of Article 370 which guaranteed special status to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State.

By shifting their agitation to press for the restoration of statehood, early holding of elections among other issues like withdrawal of property tax and toll plazas, the Opposition parties intend to corner the BJP in its own bastion.

However, there was not much public presence at the dharna as most of the people left the venue soon after they knew that Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are not coming from Srinagar.

The organisers said that they had only called party delegates and not the workers. The actual show of strength will come when INDIA alliance leaders visit Jammu.