Jammu
The General Secretary of Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M), Sitaram Yechury has termed the visits of foreign diplomats to Srinagar as staged.
Sitaram Yechury addressing a press conference in Delhi along with party member from Kashmir Yousuf Tarigami said, “Diplomats come and go. Once they leave, new draconian sections are slapped on the leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir.”
Likening Jammu and Kashmir to Tihar jail, Sitaram Yechury said, “Jammu and Kashmir cannot have a Shaheen Bagh for similar reasons as there cannot be a Shaheen Bagh in Tihar jail”.
Shaheen Bagh in Delhi has become the epicentre of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as women with young children have been staging a sit-in protest there for nearly two months.
Sitaram Yechury also said that he was receiving delegates from Jammu and Ladakh regions who were concerned about their rights that they enjoyed in the past.
“Till the time the Indian Supreme Court does not decide on the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A, the Jammu and Kashmir administration should not take decisions like giving government land to individuals and trusts from different states. Such decisions cannot be legally sustainable,” he added.
Yousuf Tarigami too took a dig at the Indian government, asking it to notify Kashmir as a “central jail” so that it no longer has to enforce draconian laws like the Public Safety Act (PSA) on its citizens.
Welcoming the Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, he said the people of New Delhi have shown some light in the regime of darkness.
Tarigami attacked the Indian government over the continued restrictions in the valley and said, the delegations, which are being taken to Jammu and Kashmir can see that even the guesthouses have been turned into “detention centres”.
“The authorities will repent what it did to Jammu and Kashmir. I am also saying that all those people who clapped at the insult of Kashmir on August 5, last year, where the entire community of Kashmir was humiliated, will repent it,” Tarigami said.—KMS
