Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 15: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senior leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig today said the present Coalition Government has converted Jammu and Kashmir into an open prison where there is no right to dissent.
Addressing a massive public meeting at Naidkhah in Sonawari, Baig said dissention is a fundamental to everybody living in a democratic set up. “In a modern democratic society, the right to dissent is one of the most fundamental rights. Right to debate or freedom of speech and the right to express dissent are the basic principals of a democracy. But unfortunately the present State Government believes in muzzling dissent by way of frequent detentions of youth and continuous house arrest of Hurriyat leaders,” Baig observed.
He said resolution of Kashmir issue is essential because there is a problem about Jammu and Kashmir. The former Deputy Chief Minister observed that Hurriyat also says that there is a problem and while there can be difference of opinion on the mode of resolution but nobody can deny the existence of the problem. “Many quarters have been in a denial mode for long but that has only added to the complexity of the problem,” he remarked.
He said the present Coalition Government is responsible for maligning the name of Indian democracy and constitutional system by depriving peaceful and respectable citizens, their liberty and fundamental rights.
“This Government has lowered the prestige of country’s judicial system and constitutional scheme by muzzling the voice of dissent and putting in jail elderly people and teenagers who should have been in schools and colleges,” Baig told a well attended public meeting.
Baig said it was a blot on the country’s name that hundreds of people continue to be behind bars for the mere use of their right to express a dissenting view. “Many ideas about the State, its problems and resolution have been articulated from time to time which has resulted in uncertainty and miseries for people. But democracy is all about meeting an idea with a more creative idea which is in tune with the spirit and reality of present times,” Baig said.
He reiterated PDP’s belief that the institutions like the State Assembly and the Panchayats have an important role in articulating and channelising the aspirations of the people. “They are not any body’s proxies or rubberstamps,” he said.
The former Deputy Chief Minister said the Omar Abdullah Government has failed on all fronts primarily because it had neither an agenda nor a direction.
“NC in its hurry to grab power forgot even about its own manifesto. Its alliance with Congress is gross political opportunism and a State has reached in this coalition where corruption seems the basic CMP among the two parties,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, PDP senior vice president expressed concern over governance deficit in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the present dispensation has failed to address even problems of basic amenities on ground. He further observed that the only agreed programme in present dispensation is to fill up their coffers.
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