TIRUCHY: Prof. K.M. Kader Mohideen, national president of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), charged the BJP government at the centre with “murdering democracy” with its thumping majority by withdrawing the special status for the Jammu and Kashmir state and initiating ‘unwarranted actions’ in the valley.
He told media persons here on Tuesday that “it is black day in India's parliamentary history”. He further said the Union government’s action of bifurcating the J and K as two Union territories is an “insult the people of Kashmir”, who had accepted the Indian election system, culture and represented as one of the states of India.
Referring to the special status to Kashmir having been in force for the last 70 years, he said, it was not only given to the people of Kashmir but it also given to the states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Despite this, there was a question mark why the special status was withdrawn only to J and K, he added.
The IUML leader also dismissed the reasons for the Union Government’s action in the Kashmir valley, citing extremism and separatism. He pointed out Naxalites organisations were active in other states of the country.
Since there is a large demand for upgrading the existing union territories as States, the Union Government’s action of “downgrading” Kashmir as union territory after dividing the state. was a ‘murder of democracy’, he added.
