Raja asks BJP-RSS combine to explain purpose of EU MPs' Kashmir visit

CPI general secretary D Raja on Wednesday asked the RSS and the BJP to explain how a delegation of European Union MPs were granted access to Kashmir when parliamentarians of the country were not allowed in the state.

Raja was addressing a press conference after releasing a booklet on Kashmir at the party office here.

"I tried to visit Kashmir twice, but was detained and sent back. The RSS-BJP combine should explain how while MPs and senior leaders of the country are being denied a visit of Kashmir, a delegation of EU MPs was visiting there.

"The RSS-BJP combine should also explain purpose of the visit by the EU parliamentarians and their political affiliations," Raja said.

He added the booklet will "expose" the "lies" spread by the RSS-BJP on Article 370 and its abrogation.

"They are spreading lies as though Patel was opposed to Article 370. Patel was very much part of negotiations on Article 370 and party to its insertion in the Constitution," the CPI general secretary said.

Saying that the "ground reality" in Kashmir is different from what the Centre is projecting, Raja condemned the killing of migrant workers by terrorists in the state. He asked the government to tell people who was responsible for such a situation.

The CPI booklet on Kashmir demanded that the government take people in Jammu and Kashmir in confidence and engage them in political dialogue over Article 370. The political activists and leaders must be immediately released and all the communication modes must be restored for normalcy, it added.

Secretary of CPI's Kashmir region G M Mizrab said the Centre should realise that there are lakhs of people affiliated to mainstream political outfits who were hurt and were suffering due to abrogation of Article 370 and the three-month-long restrictions.

"We are not separatists, we want to live in the country with dignity," Mizrab said, alleging even adolescents were detained and sent to jails outside Kashmir in the days after the abrogation of Article 370 in August.