In Protest Against Binning Special Status, Qayoom Wani Gives Up Politics
SRINAGAR: Former teacher’s leader Abdul Qayoom Wani, who unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha polls has given up politics, reports said. Wani was released in the first week of February after almost six months of detention.
Wani, however, became the first political worker who said that the August 5 decision was “unreasonable, unconstitutional and undemocratic”. he quit the politics in protest of this decision, he said in a statement.
Wani retained his silence for all these weeks and has now issued a statement saying he has quit politics forever. He had gone for premature retirement from the government service in February 2019 to join politics. A year later, he gave up politics also.
“Normally the resignation should go to the president of the party but she is under arrest,” one PDP leader told from Jammu. “These days, everybody is resigning and it first goes to media so it must be the same case with Wani Sahab as well. But I am not aware of it.”
The statement said that Wani had hoped that a strong central government would “strengthen the political, constitutional and economic powers” of the people in Jammu and Kashmir besides initiating dialogue with all walks of life. The result, he said, was completely contrary to this.
Wani said he will never be a part of any political system. Instead, he will get into social work. At the same time, he said, he will continue raising voice against the abrogation of the special status including Article 370 and Article 35A.
Waid his year-long career in politics was eye-opening. “Half of the year, I was in jail but I encountered the hard realities which were eye-opening,” Wani said. He asked the government to open political and religious leaders and initiate an unconditional dialogue. He suggested Delhi against using Kashmir as a “political laboratory”.
KL
