JAMMU Senior Congress leader and former puppet Chief Minister of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that Kashmir is on ventilator after the Indian government put it under a “political quarantine” for the past around eight months, saying the situation there is worse than what it was even 30 years ago. Iinitiating a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bills, the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House of Indian Parliament demanded an immediate release of all Kashmiri political detainees. The Congress leader said that there was no development in Jammu and Kashmir ever since it was bifurcated and deprived of special status contrary to the claims made by the BJP-led Indian government . He said it would have been better if the budget for Jammu and Kashmir was discussed in the Assembly there, adding that it was being deliberated upon at a time when the entire world was under the grip of the coronavirus and making efforts to get out of it. “A quarantine has been imposed, but Jammu and Kashmir is in a political quarantine for the last seven months and a half. We need to get out of it. “The situation in Jammu and Kashmir now is even worse than what it was 30 years ago,” the Congress leader said. Stating that there were natural calamities such as floods, earthquake and outbreak of diseases, over which no one had any control, he said, “But the problem in Jammu and Kashmir for seven months and a half is not because of the nature or gods. It is because of the government [of India]. The calamity has not been brought by foreign invaders…The protector itself has become a disaster.” “Jammu and Kashmir has been put on ventilator…You will have to remove Jammu and Kashmir from ventilator. I urge the government to release political workers, leaders and allow political activity. I also urge the government that statehood will have to be restored at the earliest, without any delay. You will have to give land rights …,” the former puppet IOK chief minister said.—KMS
