Jammu:
The recommendation for granting more autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir by a Prime Minister's group on Thursday came under fire from political parties which said no consensus was evolved on the report.
CPI-M state Secretary Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami expressed ignorance about the submission of the report. "It's news to me that we have arrived at a consensus when we never met in the last two years".
Justice (retd) Sagir Ahmed submitted his report to state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah last evening recommending that the Centre could examine granting more autonomy to the state in accordance with National Conference proposal for the same.
While pointing out that he was not against granting of more autonomy to the state, Tarigami said there should have been a meeting before coming to a conclusion.
In New Delhi, BJP dubbed the report of the Working Group as a "farce" and said the document had been prepared without consulting the members of the working group.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who is also a member of the group, said he will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing his reservations about the report.
The last meeting of this Group was held in September 2007. No meeting has been held since, Jaitley added. The group was set up in May 2006 for strengthening relations between the state and the Centre.
Panthers Party Chief Bhim Singh termed the report as "anti-people" and accused Ahmed of attempting to "please the government in the state."
Bhim Singh said no meeting had been called by Justice Ahmed since 2007 and all of sudden he himself decided to initial a report and submit it.
State Congress President Saif-ud-din Soz said his party was not averse to granting more autonomy to the state within the Constitution of India.
"As a Congress person I supported the concept of autonomy in the discussion. I had a very long argument with Arun Jaitley of BJP because he repeated BJPs stand that Article 370 can be abrogated.
"I told him Article 370 can never be abrogated and I said autonomy cannot be rejected. It was wrong on the part of NDA government at that time to reject the document. There should have been discussions. I as a Congressman, have no difficulty about the concept of autonomy within the constitution of India," Soz said.
National Conference said the autonomy of the state as it existed pre-1953 should be restored.
"Whatever has been recommended and what has been stated in the press has vindicated the stand of National Conference. Whatever was given to the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the means of instrument of accession, presidential order of 1950 and Delhi Accord of 1952 should be restored," state Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said.