Kalvakuntla-kavitha01Mainstream political voices from Indian mainland are lately echoing the same views that plunged the Himalayan region in the quagmire of ‘unending conflict’. After senior Indian scribe stirred up hornet’s nest recently by supporting the idea of Independent Kashmir, now the Indian lawmaker in her ‘eyebrow statement’ has put a serious question on New Delhi’s “integral part” claim on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), saying: India need to come out clean on J&K.

Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is member of Lok Sabha, has categorically stated that Jammu Kashmir and Telangana are not parts of India. Representative of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party in the parliament, she said that Telangana and Kashmir were both separate territories but were forcefully merged into India by New Delhi after independence.

But the remarks of the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao didn’t go well with traditional political parties of India with Congress saying that her remarks could inadvertently cast serious doubts on the integrity and legitimacy of the Indian union.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the stand of the Congress and even of parliament was that the (erstwhile) princely state of Kashmir in its entirety is an ‘integral, invisible, inalienable’ part of India, according to the ‘Accession Instrument’ of 1947.

A 1978 born, K Kavitha is a political activist-turned-lawmaker. She is the founder of Telangana Jagruthi which is known for its Telangana cultural activities. She was active in the agitation for separate statehood for Telangana.

Kavitha is the second of two children of K. Chandrasekhar Rao who studied at Stanley Girls High School and did her graduation in engineering from VNRVJIET and her Masters from an American University in 2001.

In 2006, she adopted a few villages in Nalgonda district and provided free education to children with the help of local people. In 2009, she protested during the Nandi awards ceremony for mocking Telangana language and culture in some Telugu films. In 2010, she was in the news for opposing the film release of Adhurs because people associated with the film were opposed to the statehood of Telangana. She actively participated in the Telangana movement from 2009 to 2014. In the 2014 election, she was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from the Nizamabad constituency in Telangana.

While stating that India need to come out clean on Jammu and Kashmir, she said: Few parts were not ours, we should agree, we should redraw the international lines, and move on.

-Bilal Handoo

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