The crucial meeting of the Peoples' Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), scheduled to take place on Tuesday, has been canceled due to "personal" engagement of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti.
The meeting was significant as it was called to discuss the outcome of the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the leaders of all mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 in New Delhi.
Spokesman of the PAGD and leader of CPM, M Y Tarigami said "Alliance's meeting which was scheduled for tomorrow is postponed because of personal engagement of Mehbooba Mufti". The meeting was scheduled to be held at the alliance's chairperson Farooq Abdullah's residence in the Gupkar area of Srinagar on Tuesday morning.
Sources, however, said that the meeting has been postponed as PDP leadership was not happy with the recent statements of some constituents of the PAGD.
Differences cropped up in PAGD before the all-party meeting
Notwithstanding the claims of the leaders, differences cropped up in the PAGD before the all-party meeting. Former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had distanced himself from the demand of Mehbooba Mufti to hold dialogue with Pakistan. He said the demand of involving Pakistan in the dialogue process was an individual stand of Mehbooba Mufti and her party PDP.
PAGD leaders failed to present a united face in all-party meeting
During the all-party meeting, leaders of the PAGD highlighted viewpoints of their respective political parties. Instead of acting as leaders of an amalgam, leaders spoke in different voices in the meeting.
Amalgam disintegrated after DDC elections
With much publicity, the PAGD was formed in the month of October 2019 by six political parties with the pledge of perseverance and steadfastness towards the restoration of Article 370. This resolution was written in the Alliance's declaration where the political parties stated there would be "nothing about us without us," meaning they will stick together come what may.
"We want to assure people that all our political activities will be subservient to the sacred goal of reverting to the status of J&K as it existed before August 2019," read PAGD's declaration.
Within a couple of months after its formation, PAGD had received a severe jolt when Sajad Lone of Peoples' Conference, left the alliance. Lone charged both NC and PDP with fielding proxy candidates against the officially mandated candidates of the alliance as during the DDC elections. He called these actions "a breach of trust".
