Chennai: DMK president MK Stalin slammed the Centre's move to revoke Art 370 and reorganise Jammu&Kashmir, calling this “a dark day in the history of Indian federalism”. Taking to twitter, he said the decision, taken with “many State leaders under house arrest and through a pliant Governor, goes against the grain of democracy and constitutionalism”.
“I urge the President of India to not precipitate the situation and not take any further steps in this regard until a democratically elected Government is formed there. The DMK stands with its Kashmiri brothers and sisters and will oppose any assault on federal structure”, said his another tweet.
On a day when the social media was on fire with posts and trolls, the DMK chief got hugely criticised for his hard talk on the Centre's J&K moves with one twitterati accusing him of using the platform to promote the DMK's pet project of separate Dravida Nadu. One clever post raised the question if Stalin truly bothered about the brothers and sisters in Kashmir despite their not knowing Tamil and despite his opposition to Hindi.
Another whiplash on twitter: “Mr. Stalin, in 1990, Your party was one of the main coalition when 500000 Hindus were forced out of Kashmir. Why special status to them?” Many others wanted the DMK leader to first equip himself with all the information and history behind the J&K issue.
However, a prominent author came out in robust support of the DMK chief. “Proud to be Tamil when I see something like this”, said Chennai's Meena Kandasamy, now settled in London. In another tweet, she called upon the “friends and comrades in London” to come together to raise voice in support of Kashmir at the rally before the Indian High Commission in the British capital. “Bring along your friends, your self-respect and your self-determination”, said Meena's tweet.
“Let's not forget what's called Union Territory in India is a region that's ADMINISTERED by New Delhi/Centre. It will make absolute sense to call this DELHI RULE. This takes out any shred of autonomy the people of Kashmir have, condemns them to a fate worse than, say Tamil Nadu”, was another tweet from the celebrated author.
And then, there was also actress and Congress leader Khushbu Sundar, who had her say, hot and bitter, against the BJP Government's
Kashmir moves that have brought “the darkest days of democracy in this country” which she said “is probably the idea of #AchcheDin for @PMOIndia”.
And she got trolled too, with Samyvad @samyvad99 telling Khushbu not to teach (us) democracy without knowing what that really meant for someone in the Congress party notorious for the Emergency of Indira Gandhi. “What has happened today is the need of the hour and no more politics in that state. All these guys of hurriyat can shut shop and start doing some productive work”, he said.
