New Delhi: Ramon Magsaysay award winner and social activist Sandeep Pandey has claimed that people don't have the option to voice their opinion in the country as he was put under house arrest thrice in the past one week for planning to hold a peaceful protest against the scrapping of Article 370.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Pandey said that Democracy has been muzzled the way Article 370 has been abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir.
Slamming the Modi government further he said that these days democracy is merely a toy in the hands of the government.
"Abrogation of article 370 is an embarrassment to democracy. It is wrong to divide Jammu and Kashmir into two parts, and we will raise the voice against this. The government should keep the situation in Kashmir normal. People in the valley are confused and living with great anxiety," said Pandey.
He said that as far as Kashmir's development is concerned, It is far ahead than states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Gujarat. Therefore, in spite of thinking about Kashmir, the government should also take steps for the development of other states.
Pandey further said, "The central government should have taken the view of Kashmiris before taking such a big step. The kind of environment has been made that if your thinking is different from the Bharatiya Janata Party's thinking, then everything you do is wrong, you have no freedom,"
He also said that by repealing special status of Kashmir the government has shown its intention that now they have nothing to do with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK). Dr Manmohan Singh's government was much better in this regard, as the Congress always advocated of border-less Kashmir and this is what Mahatma Gandhi also wanted.
Sandeep Pandey had won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2002 in the emergent leader category.
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