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| Omar Abdullah's dangerous U-turn for votes in Kashmir | | Public Safety Act | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 3: In the rest of the country, elections are mostly fought on democratic, economic and ideological issues, but in J&K, the story is different. In Kashmir in particular, parties like the NC, the PDP and the Congress contest polls on emotive, divisive planks and pro-terrorist planks. The latest example is what NC president Omar Abdullah the other said about Public Safety Act (PSA). He told his supporters in Kashmir's Anantnag that he will remove from within the ambit of law in a matter of days, if elected to power with a majority.
"If elected with a majority in the next elections, I will throw the PSA out of the ambit of law," he told his party workers amid loud cheers from them, adding that "the government is meant to heal the wounds of the people" and that "I assure you that our parents will no longer be troubled with their sons languishing in jails under such Acts".
In other words, he said that a vote for him and his NC will a vote for the release of all dreaded terrorists who have been booked under the PSA. And this could be termed as a dangerous U-turn considering the fact that the state in general and Kashmir Valley in particular have been passing through a critical phase with terrorists and separatists playing the shots and indulging in break-India activities with an utmost ease. He is the same Omar Abdullah who on October 1, 2013 had taken an altogether a different position on PSA and said on the floor of the Assembly in Srinagar that PSA in J&K will not be revoked.
"There is no proposal or need for revocation of Jammu and Kashmir PSA, 1978, which has been amended last year to ensure that no citizen under the age of 18 years is detained under the law," Omar Abdullah had said, adding that "as per the amendment, clause(f) has been inserted after clause(e) in sub-section 3 of section 8 which provides that no citizen of India who has not attained the age of 18 years can be detained under clause(a) and (a-i) of section 8 of the Act".
"The Act has sufficient inbuilt safeguards including reference to advisory board set up under the Act to confirm or recommend revocation of the detention order leaving no scope for its misuse or arbitrary application by any authority. 1,257 people have been arrested under the Act since 2009 till July this year. While courts have quashed PSA detention of 945 persons, 66 of them have been rearrested. There is no concept or policy of 'revolving door detention' under the PSA. However, some people are re-detained due to their deep involvement in terrorist, subversive or disruptive activities or other heinous crimes in the interest of security of the state and maintenance of public order," he had also said.
It is clear that the Kashmir-based parties can go to any extent for the sake of votes, including at the cost of the paramount national interest. It's because of the vote-bank politics that the people of state have been suffering and nation facing a serious threat in the Valley, particularly since 1951. |
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