How long is this going to continue? Priyanka Gandhi on J&K situation
NEW DELHI : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday lashed out at the Centre for accusing the opposition of “politicising” the Jammu and Kashmir issue.How long is this going to continue? This is one out of millions of people who are being silenced and crushed in the name of “Nationalism”.
Priyanka also accused the Centre of being anti-national by silencing the people of the valley, saying there is nothing more “political” and “anti-national” than snatching away democratic rights from the people. Her remark came a day after her brother and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders were sent back from the Srinagar airport.
The video of the incident was shared on Twitter by Congress spokesperson Radhika Khera in which a Kashmiri woman is seen narrating how the lives of people had been affected after the abrogation of Article 370 and lockdown in the Valley.
There is NOTHING more ‘political’ and ‘anti national’ than the shutting down of all democratic rights that is taking place in Kashmir. It is the duty of every one of us to raise our voices against it, we will not stop doing so,” Priyanka tweeted.
A delegation of 12 opposition leaders, led by Gandhi, on a visit to know the ground realities in the Valley, was not allowed to move out of the Srinagar airport and was sent back to Delhi in an evening flight. After returning to Delhi, Gandhi said things in Valley were not normal. “We wanted to get a sense of what people are going through. But we were not allowed beyond the airport,” Gandhi said.
“The media people with us were manhandled. It’s clear the situation in J&K is not normal,” he said. A few days back he was invited by J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik to visit the state and he had accepted the invitation. The Valley has been under security lockdown since August 5, when Article 370 was abrogated.
The delegation comprised Communist Party of India leader D. Raja, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and K.C. Venugopal, Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) Chief Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majeed Memon, RJD’s Manoj Jha and Janata Dal Secular’s D. Kupendra Reddy.
The J&K administration had on Friday advised the leaders to stay away from the region, saying attempts should not be made to disturb the gradual restoration of normalcy in the state. The opposition delegation’s attempt to visit the state had come almost three weeks after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that accorded special status to J&K.
