Srinagar, 01 August: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Senior leader Muhammad Shafi Uri on Monday said forging unity is the emergent need to protect the intangible cultural heritage and unique political identity of Jammu and Kashmir.
This he said while addressing a one day workshop of the party’s media, social-media, YNC and Women’s wing functionaries at Nawa-e-Subha, Srinagar. The interactive five hours long marathon session was convened by the party’s Chief Spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq. Among others Party’s State Spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar, Provincial YNC President Salman Ali Sagar, Social-Media In Charge Sarah Hayat Shah, Women’s Wing Provincial President Er. Sabiya Qadri, Deputy Political Secretary to VP Mudassar Shahmiri, Provincial Spokesperson Ifra Jan, Media, Social Media and YNC functionaries were also present on the occasion. The session was also followed by the question and answer session.
Interacting with the functionaries, Uri said that NC displays a fascinating profile of people’s making, institution building, poverty alleviation, land and agriculture reforms, and bequeathing single line and local self-government.
Dispelling the ambiguities with regards to the vision and mission of NC, Shafi Uri said, “There was a strong reason for the construction of the Indian Constitution on a federal basis. Our leadership also hoped that it was only in a federal structure that sufficient elasticity could be obtained for the Union of elements of diverse internal conditions and communities at very different stages of development and culture. All we have been seeking is the safeguard of our identity and protect our land within the elasticity afforded to us by our Constitution,” he added.
Alluding to regional aspirations and ushering in well balanced and equitable growth of all the diverse groups of J&K, Uri observed, “While other political parties thrived fanning regional divisions, it was only NC that made serious efforts to bridge those wedges. The Constitution of Single line administration, and formation of district developmental boards meant those regional grievances. The autonomy resolution which was tabled and successively passed by majority vote in J&K legislative Assembly had provisions of further decentralisation and Sub-regional autonomies in it to cater to the political and development aspirations of our diverse people,” he said.
On poverty alleviation efforts, Uri said that there is no place in the world which marked the turning of fortunes around the way it was witnessed in J&K. “The pro poor intervention in the shape of land to tiller and free education upto university level lacks parallels to this date. As late as 1947, the peasantry of Kashmir was still labouring under medieval conditions, we were being treated as dumb driven cattle. As a result of these drastic reforms, thousands of acres of land were transferred to thousands of tillers irrespective of his faith, ethnicity and sect.”
Single Line Administration was indeed a bold step for introducing an innovative concept to secure the participation of people at the district level, where public representatives were consulted and made partners into development, he added.
Uri also impressed upon the youth party members to make it a point to study the spectacular history of the party and the region. “Our party youth are the heirs of the party’s great traditions. They have a greater duty to acquaint themselves with the history of the party as well of the entire region. Politics is a daily battle, one has to be equipped mentally to take on the challenges.”
