SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Saturday in a statement denounced the “illegal detention of the Party President and Member of Parliament Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Vice President Omar Abdullah at their residence in Srinagar to scuttle peaceful PAGD sit-in protest.”
Condemning the measure as vicious abuse of power, the Party General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, and Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani termed such a misuse of power as despotic and violative of basic democratic ideals. “Such high-handed measures signal how badly the climate of free speech and right to dissent has deteriorated in Jammu and Kashmir,” they said.
Accusing the government of declaring war against the people, they contended that the measure has sent the message loud and clear that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have no right to show dissent. Equating the measures to throttling democracy, they said the government has made it clear on the very first day of the New Year that this year is also going to be no exception to the decline of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Terming the current delimitation draft proposal as political immorality and violative of constitutionally underpinned representation rules, the leaders said that the party has out rightly rejected it. “Such delimitation has no credibility among masses. It doesn’t follow any equitable parameters. The draft crafts the disempowerment of Kashmir province. It also aims to sow seeds of discord between different communities and regions. NC would oppose any such measure that undermines the political and democratic rights of any community in the region. We don’t accept the draft report,” they added.
“The leaders also denounced the high-handedness of police on party functionaries, who staged a peaceful protest against the illegal detention of the party leadership and delimitation commission report,” the statement said.
