TCN News
The delegates from National President of Welfare Party of India comprising Dr. SQR Ilyas and National general secretaries Ms Sheema Mohsin and Subramani Arumugam visited Kashmir on 12 & 13th September 2019, to assess the ground realities of the people of Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A. They visited Srinagar and Baramulla and met people from different walks of life which included journalists, lawyers, academicians, businessmen, house boat owners , street vendors, taxi drivers, farmers and students.
This trip was undertaken because all lines of communications, mobile and internet has been snapped in the valley, since 5th august 2019.
The people across the valley expressed anger; anguish as the entire process of abrogating article 370 and 35A took place without involving the them and termed it as undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal.
The people exhibited their protest by imposing curfew, with all business establishment closed and relaxing it for just one hour every morning and evening to enable people to buy essential commodities.
The people of Kashmir exhibited great solidarity and in one voice stated that article 370 was a link between Kashmir & India and with the abrogation of Art 370 the connection is broken.
With their politicians and leaders arrested or detained the people of the valley are confused and uncertain about their future, they said, that they felt betrayed and their democratic rights and right to freedom of expression, information and communication had been grossly violated.
They expressed their unhappiness of being denied, the facility to communicate with their people within and outside the valley even during emergency times, such as death etc in the family.
The people of the valley felt that the media is biased and is not fairly portraying the sentiments of the people of Kashmir.
The schools and the colleges in the valley have been shut down since august 5th. The teachers said that they are ready to teach but with no public transport the students are unable to attend the classes and feared that they may lose one academic year as the annual exams are scheduled in the month of November and their academics are incomplete.
September & October are harvest months in the valley. The apples and pears are ready to be picked from trees and packed. But the entire industry of harvesting which is around 8000/- crore rupees has come to a standstill with no labourers and transport in place, there is no business transactions.
The people felt that many people from the valley are arrested or detained and the number was approximately 30,000- 40,000 which included political leaders, social activities, academicians, lawyers leaders of civil society movement etc.
The welfare party of India demands that:
- Sincere dialogue with the people of Kashmir should take place and should ensure that the curfew is withdrawn and normalcy restored in the valley.
- All communication lines, internet and mobiles should be restored with immediate effect.
- All the people arrested from the valley should be released immediately.
- The faith and trust of the indigenous people of Kashmir should be restored with their history, identity, ethnicity and culture and demography preserved and their citizenry upheld.
- The human rights violations taking place in the valley should be immediately stopped.
- The people and leaders from rest of India should refrain from giving provocative and irresponsible statement about Kashmir and kashmiris.
- The people of the valley must be assured that their ethnicity, culture and demography shall not be altered. This assurance should be given in legal terms.
- The government should initiate dialogue with all stake holders in Kashmir and steps should be taken to win the trust of the people and ensure that the civil curfew shall be withdrawn and normalcy be truly restored.