‘Tyranny of unelected’ says CM Omar
NC using traitors, terrorists to stoke Separatist agenda, says LoP Sunil
Srinagar, Jul 13: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the “unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 ‘martyrs’ here.
The detentions, which were not officially confirmed by police or the administration, were widely reported by leaders who posted videos and pictures showing their gates locked or blocked by security personnel to stop them from going to the Naqshband Sahib graveyard near Nowhatta in the old city to pay tributes to those killed in July13, 1931 firing.
The Srinagar district administration had denied permission to all applicants, including the ruling National Conference leaders, to visit the graveyard. All roads leading to the area located in downtown were barricaded with a heavy presence of police personnel on Sunday.
In a post on X, the Chief Minister likened the July 13, 1931 incident to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, saying, “The people who laid down their lives did so against the British… What a shame that true heroes who fought against British rule… are today projected as villains.”
Omar Abdullah criticised the house detentions, and said “in a blatantly undemocratic move, homes have been locked from the outside, police and central forces deployed as jailers… All to stop people from visiting a historically important graveyard.”
“To borrow from the late Arun Jaitley Sb – Democracy in J&K is a tyranny of the unelected. To put it in terms you will all understand today the unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives of the people of J&K,” the chief minister said.
The National Conference leader said, “We may be denied the opportunity to visit their graves today, but we will not forget their sacrifices”.
PDP President Mehbooba Mufti posted pictures of her main door locked and said, “When you lay siege to the Martyrs’ Graveyard, lock people in their homes… it speaks volumes.”
She argued that a genuine end to mistrust between Delhi and Kashmir would only happen when India accepts Kashmiri “martyrs” as their own.
“The day you accept our heroes as your own just as Kashmiris have embraced yours, from Mahatma Gandhi to Bhagat Singh, that day, as Prime Minister Modi once said, the ‘dil ki doori’ (distance of hearts) will truly end,” she said in a post on X.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chaudhary, who was in Jammu, said that his official residence in Kashmir was also locked by the administration.
“This is our condition. Locking a deputy chief minister, ministers and MLAs is a threat to democracy,” he said and demanded restoration of statehood to J-K.
“The nation that forgets its martyrs does not last long. Those who laid down their lives in 1931 were unarmed civilians fighting for their rights. They were not driven by religion or fighting against any community,” the deputy chief minister told reporters at the ruling National Conference headquarters.
However, Leader of Opposition in J&K Assembly, Sunil Sharma dubbed the slain protesters as “traitors” and said the ruling party is trying to indulge in “provocative politics” and revive a separatist sentiment which was long buried following abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
“We consider them as traitors as I have made it clear on the floor of the assembly,” the BJP leader said.
“National Conference is trying to indulge in provocative politics in the name of these traitors, terrorists, separatists and so-called political prisoners to revive the sentiment (of separatism). They are having a misconception but this will never happen again,” he told reporters.
