Delhi / PM Modi lacks political wisdom of Nehru, Patel: Owaisi

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slammed the BJP-led Central government for its latest decisions to revoke Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and divide the state into two Union Territories. Speaking at the party’s Eid Milap event in Hyderabad, Owaisi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi lacked the political wisdom of the country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Hyderabad MP added that Kashmir is an integral part of India and would remain so.

“Modi, you do not have the political wisdom of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. When they took the decision of enforcing Article 370, they must have done it after considering all aspects,” he said.

Opposing the manner in which Article 370 was scrapped, he said, “I reiterate that this is a violation of Constitutional agreement.”

Owaisi said that when Nehru and Patel took the decision, “they did so in the interest of the country” PM Modi, he said, is claiming that he is following Shyama Prasad Mookerji but “they (government) don’t know his stand on Kashmir, that he had acknowledged Article 370”.

Stating that Kashmir is a part of India and would remain so, Owaisi asked the government to release all the Muslims in the Valley and let’s see whether they celebrate the latest decisions.

The AIMIM leader said that the government is projecting that the situation is under control. “Then why people are being deprived of communication?” he asked.

“No phone works there. Internet is a far-off thing. Why don’t you open phone lines?” he questioned.

He said that the government should remove the restrictions on communication links in Kashmir, adding that if Kashmir people are so happy, let them come out of their homes.

He said that government’s decision to divide the state into Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, was against the principles of federalism as the state assembly’s views should have been taken before implementing such a decision.

The Centre has imposed strict restrictions in Kashmir ever since it revoked provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to the state and bifurcated it into two UTs.