SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir—A day before India stripped Indian-administered Kashmir of its special status in August 2019 and downgraded it to a federally controlled territory, all the regional political parties held an emergency meeting in Srinagar. The regional parties had sensed that the country’s ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was planning to fiddle with Kashmir’s special status and vowed to defend the legislation. The joint declaration by the Kashmiri political parties came to be known as the Gupkar Declaration, borrowing its name from the posh neighborhood in Srinagar where several former ministers live.
Hours before the Indian home minister announced in parliament the decision that would change the course of Kashmiri politics, almost all of the top and lower-rung politicians in Kashmir were detained. Among those were three former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir: Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah, and Farooq Abdullah.
