J&K Congress welcomes SC order to restore Internet services

Welcoming the Supreme Court order on the restoration of Internet services, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Friday said it will pave the way for withdrawing all illegal restrictions on common people, especially the mainstream opposition parties and their leaders.

"Supreme Court's direction was long awaited by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially the mainstream opposition parties, who were subjected to all types of restrictions by the proxy rule of BJP," vice president of J&K Congress Raman Bhalla said.

He said the BJP and its leaders had all sorts of "liberties and facilities" at the cost of the public exchequer, including full-fledged security to carry out all types of activities in any part of the state but the Congress, other mainstream parties and their leaders are still under a blanket of restrictions.

Bhalla said the clampdown is totally against democratic norms and it was a sort of "undeclared Emergency" during the past five months.

He reminded that a week ago J&K Congress president G A Mir along with other party leaders including him were put under house arrest on December 31, 2019 to prevent them from proceeding to Udhampur and Ramban for political activities.

Bhalla said this kind of approach by the Centre would not bring restoration of normalcy and peace unless the "credible" leadership of established mainstream political parties are not allowed to carry out meaningful political activities.

Senior Congress leaders lashed out at BJP for putting common people to face such hardship by stopping Internet services and other activities, as observed by the Supreme Court.

They questioned the BJP and the Central government for allowing ruling party leaders and other select politicians who fall in their line and debarring all other mainstream politicians from any political activities during the period.

The leaders hit out at the "divisive and communal politics" of BJP and appealed to the people to reject such designs for the larger interest of the country.