All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIN) leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday questioned the claims of the government that normalcy has returned to Kashmir after the Supreme Court allowed senior Congress leader former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to visit Jammu and Kashmir.
Owaisi, a trenchant critic of the government, also asked why politics is not allowed in the newly created union territory of Jammu and Kashmir if the situation is normal.
“Why does a former CM (GN Azad) of Jammu and Kashmir need to seek permission from SC to travel to J&K? It shows that there is no normalcy in Kashmir. If the government claims that everything is normal then why can’t politics be done?” ANI quoted him as saying.
The AIMIM chief had earlier claimed said that the Central government’s move to abrogate Article 370 was against the Constitution.
The Supreme Court said that the Congress leader can visit the state but cannot hold any political rally. Azad is the second major politician whom the Supreme Court has allowed to visit Kashmir. In his appeal, Azad had said he would not make any speeches or hold any public rally.
Politicians of all hues, including three former chief ministers, have been under house arrest for more than a month after the Centre imposed strict restrictions as it scrapped Article 370 and split Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories on August 5.
{{/usCountry}}Politicians of all hues, including three former chief ministers, have been under house arrest for more than a month after the Centre imposed strict restrictions as it scrapped Article 370 and split Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories on August 5.
{{/usCountry}}Azad who is the leader of opposition on the Rajya Sabha, was turned away twice from Srinagar and once from Jammu in August amid a security lockdown.
On August 28, the apex court allowed CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury and a Kashmiri law student in Delhi to travel to the Valley under police protection and asked the two to submit a report on their return.
Yechury had filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Kashmiri politician and the party’s general secretary Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami.