Patna: The CPI on Saturday demanded the immediate release of all political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir in detention since the abrogation of Article 370 in the state.
CPI general secretary D Raja alleged that J&K is under siege as no political leaders of the country are being allowed to visit the region even though "right-wing sympathizers from abroad were accorded red carpet welcome.
The Narendra Modi government at the Centre had allowed parliamentarians from the European Union to visit the region.
"Now it is planning to extend the same favor to ambassadors of a number of countries," he claimed.
Raja told newsmen, Farooq Abdullah, a sitting member of the Parliament, has been arrested. So are former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. We demand immediate release of these leaders and all other political figures who have been detained since the abrogation of Article 370".
He said, Jammu and Kashmir is under siege and it must be a matter of concern for the entire country. The democratic rights of its people must be restored. The region has been declared out of bounds for any Indian political figures desirous of a visit. But red carpet welcome is accorded to right-wing sympathizers from abroad.
The government, he said, has curbed the movement of political leaders within Jammu and Kashmir and barred those from other parts of the country from visiting the northern state.
Asked to comment on historian Ramachandra Guha saying at the Kerala Literature Festival that the state had erred in electing Congress Rahul Gandhi to Parliament since a fifth-generation dynast stood no chance before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Raja said: "This is not the time for squabbles".
Ramachandra Guha is a very respectable historian. When Rahul Gandhi had decided to contest from Wayanad against a candidate of our party (CPI) I had expressed my displeasure and this is on record. But this is not the time for squabbles.
The country is facing an unprecedented situation and it is the duty of the entire opposition to come together in support of the country-wide mass agitations," he said.
The Rajya Sabha member also dismissed the Modi governments insistence that a country-wide National Register of Citizens was not on the anvil.
"CAA, NPR and NRC are part of a package. It is a trinity. You cannot separate one from the remaining two. Fears prevailing in the minds of the people are genuine," he added.
Raja declined to comment on a query about Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaisinh urging the parents of Nirbhaya to draw inspiration from Sonia Gandhi and forgive the gang-rape accused.
The death sentence awarded to Nalini, who was convicted in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was commuted to life imprisonment on the intervention Sonia Gandhi.
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