War of words over Opposition silence on Art. 370

Sajad Lone questions NC, PDP silence over issue at Sonia’s meet

A war of words erupted between Sajad Lone’s Peoples Conference (PC) and Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) on Saturday, a day after the virtual meeting of 19 Opposition parties, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, stayed silent on the issue of reading down of Article 370. Taking on the NC and Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party, who participated in Ms. Gandhi’s meeting, Mr. Lone said, “No mention of Article 370 in the Opposition parties meet. In wonderment how can J&K leaders justify their presence in the meeting if they could not convince the leaders to talk about Article 370. BJP anti-370 stance is clear. What is the national Opposition’s stance?” Mr. Lone was not invited for the meeting. The joint statement issued at the end of the meeting spoke of the need to restore statehood to J&K.