Hyderabad: Lashing out at the Narendra Modi-led Central Government's Kashmir policy, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Professor Manoj Jha on Wednesday said that the claims of the union government on normalcy in Kashmir were not corroborated by the ground situation in the region. Speaking in Rajya Sabha in response to President Dropadi Murmu's speech, Prof Jha took a jibe at the union government's claims of normalcy in Kashmir.
"The reference to Article 370 was made (in the President's speech). I have come with documents to say that there is no normalcy in Kashmir," he said while flashing a recently published book--A Dismantled State: The untold story of Kashmir after Article 370--written by Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin.
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Jha said that the ground situation in Kashmir was disturbing. "Kashmir should not be regarded as a mere piece of land. Alive people are inhabited here," he said. He said that bulldozers are on a demolition spree in Kashmir for months together. "Home of the people are being demolished," he said.
He said it was important to win over the hearts of common Kashmiris. "You have to win over the hearts of Kashmiri people. Unless you don't do it, you can't win over the heart of Kashmir, even if you try a hundred thousand times," Jha noted. The RJD leader lamented that a sense of fear has been created among the minorities in the country. Obliquely referring to Chinese intrusion in Ladakh, he said that the government is not willing to speak about a neighbouring country.
