HYDERABAD: Slamming the Narendra Modi government over the recent visit of foreign envoys to Jammu and Kashmir, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said that he would be arrested at the Hyderabad airport if he expressed his desire to go to Kashmir.
The Hyderabad MP also criticised the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, saying that there have not been Internet services in Kashmir since then.
Addressing a rally in Narayanpet district on Saturday in the run up to the municipal polls in Telangana, Owaisi termed the scrapping of provisions of the article the second biggest mistake after the arrest of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Sheikh Abdullah.
“It has been 5-6 months since abrogation of Article 370 but till today Internet services remain suspended. Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) had spoken of big things and said that there will be development, as if there was nothing happening in Kashmir,” the AIMIM chief said, adding the Supreme Court had to tell the government that Internet is a fundamental right.
“The Modi government took foreign envoys to Kashmir and showed them that there is peace in Kashmir. But, if I say that I want to go to Kashmir then CISF personnel will arrest me at the Hyderabad Airport. I cannot go there as I have taken the oath of Indian Constitution, but Modi took envoys of America and other countries there,” Owaisi said.
The Supreme Court on January 10 said in a significant ruling said access to the Internet is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution and asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to review within a week all orders imposing curbs in the Union Territory.
A team of 15 envoys which included the US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster had gone to Srinagar on Thursday on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the first visit by diplomats since August last year when the state’s special status was revoked and it was downsized to a union territory.
In his speech, Owaisi further alleged that BJP government made several promises but failed to fulfil them, and when questioned over its failures on several occasions it brought in triple talaq law, abrogated Article 370 and now brought in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). PTI
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