A day after Rahul Gandhi and a delegation of Opposition leaders were sent back from Srinagar airport, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Sunday shared a video of a Kashmiri woman breaking down before the Congress leader on a flight to New Delhi.
“For those who accuse the opposition of ‘politicising’ this issue: 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,” she wrote on Twitter.
In the video, the woman is seen recounting how the lockdown in the Valley has affected the lives of those in Jammu and Kashmir. “Our children have not been able to move out of their houses. My brother is a heart patient. He could not see the doctor for 10 days. We are in trouble,” she said sobbing. In the video, Rahul can be seen trying to console the woman.
“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 Gandhi added in her tweet.
A 12-member delegation of Opposition parties from Delhi led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was sent back from Srinagar airport on Saturday. The leaders slammed the government for denying them entry, with a CPM politburo statement calling it “daylight robbery of rights” guaranteed by the Constitution.
In a video put out by the Congress, Rahul can be seen negotiating with officials to allow the delegation to leave the airport to assess the situation in the valley. ” The Governor has said that I am invited. Toh ab main aaya hoon. Phir aap keh rahein hai ki main nahi aa sakte hain (So I have now come here and you are telling that I cannot come.) And the government is saying that everything is okay here, everything is normal. If everything is normal, why are we not allowed out?” he can be seen telling in the video.
When asked at a media briefing why the delegation was not allowed to enter to Srinagar city, state government spokesperson Rohit Kansal read out Friday’s tweet by the J&K Department of Information and Public Relations: “… Attempts should not be made by senior political leaders to disturb the gradual restoration of normal life. Political leaders are requested to cooperate and not visit Srinagar…”
Jammu and Kashmir has been under lockdown since August 4 after the government snapped mobile lines, internet connections and cable TVs. On August 5, a Presidential Order revoked provisions of Article 370, which granted special status to J&K. Three days later, Parliament ratified this decision and passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, which bifurcates the state into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Curbs have been lifted in many parts of the state, the government says.
Courtesy Indian Express
