Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded immediate releaseof senior Kashmir leaders like Farookh Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who had been kept under house arrest post abrogation ofArticle 370 and 35A of the Constitution saying the people of the Stateshould have been consulted and taken into confidence before taking such a huge step.
Banerjee who on Tuesday left for Chennai where she would unveil the statue of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi told reporters at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport that “the way the issue was handled was deplorable” and the people and political parties of Jammu & Kashmir should have been, consulted and taken into confidence before such decision.” This decision was not democratic and “procedural, and technical issues were involved in it,” she said.
Saying that her party would never accept the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Bill proposing to bifurcate the State into two Union Territories, Banerjee said, “We will never support this bill and oppose it tooth and nail,” Banerjee said adding, “actually, legally and democratically it was not a praiseworthy step.”
On shutting Kashmir out from the whole world Banerjee said “I have no first hand information on the issue and whatever I came to know is from the media reports,” adding “the people of Kashmir are also our brothers and sisters, our own citizens … they should have been dealt with delicately.”
A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved a resolution in the Lok Sabha for bringing a bill to reorganise the State of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories —Jammu & Kashmir, and LadakhBanerjee on Tuesday broke her studied silence saying her party had staged a walk-out from the Rajya Sabha during the voting to mean that “we are not supporting the bill. This does not mean that we have supported the bill.”
Lambasting the Centre for putting senior politicians of the Valley under house arrest Banerjee said she had no idea of their whereabouts.
“I have no information regarding senior leaders of various political parties including former Chief Ministers like Farookh Abdullah ji… I have only seen in the television reports that Mehbooba
(Mufti), Omar Abdullah are under house arrest,” Banerjee said wondering whether putting senior leaders in jail was a healthy sign in a democracy.
“Are these leaders terrorists? They are not,” Banerjee said appealing to the Central Government to “release them immediately.” The people of Kashmir including their leaders should not feel isolated in this hour of crisis, she said adding the entire country was with them.