SRINAGAR: Senior Congress leaders across the Kashmir division, including presidents of all District Congress Committees, were placed under preventive house arrest ahead of a planned peaceful sit-in protest, party leaders claimed on Monday.
Party sources said the proposed demonstration was meant to oppose the central government’s move to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the proposed Gramin Rojgar Guarantee (G-Ram-G) Act.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra said the party had planned a peaceful sit-in and had informed the authorities in advance. “It was a scheduled demonstration, not a spontaneous protest, and we had clearly conveyed that it would remain peaceful,” he said.
Karra said the party was unable to understand why the administration had taken steps to prevent the protest. Questioning the move, he suggested that the authorities might have viewed the protest as a threat or that the situation resembled an undeclared emergency. He alleged that the action reflected fear within the administration over Congress mobilising public opinion against the government.
Describing the move as “the funeral of democracy,” Karra said fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution were being undermined, and alleged that there were attempts to gradually alter constitutional provisions. He termed the approach “Hitlerian.”
The Congress has launched a nationwide campaign against the proposed legislation, calling it an “anti-people” measure that it says could jeopardise the livelihood security of crores of rural citizens.
