Modi, Shah silent on allowing Abdullah, Chidambaram to attend Parliament

There is no case against Farooq Abdullah. The former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir is not accused of stone pelting. He has not been accused of taking part in any anti-government protests either. And yet he is under ‘illegal’ detention for the last three and a half months. Why cannot he attend the winter session of Parliament?

The questions were raised by the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad and National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi. “ How can a Parliamentarian be detained illegally ?”

“We anyway do not get any reply from the Government on any issue,” quipped Azad while confirming that there was no response from the PM or the Home Minister at the meeting to the demand.

There are past precedents, said Azad, of allowing MPs in custody and against whom cases are pending, to attend Parliament. By that precedent, even the former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in prison and denied bail for the past 80 days, should be allowed to attend Parliament, he said.

Two days before the winter session of Parliament, he had tweeted,

“I have asked my family to tweet the following on my behalf: Why does the Government fear that I will rise in my seat in Parliament and speak? Why does the Government fear that I will write every week and expose the utter mismanagement of the economy?”

Meanwhile, Iltija Mufti, daughter of another former CM Mehbooba Mufti, has alleged that police tried to strip search one of the detained leaders, Sajjad Lone, on Sunday while shifting them from SKICC to MLA hostel.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, she maintained, “SKICC detainees shifted to MLA hostel, Srinagar today. Police manhandled them & roughed up Sajjad Lone, Waheed Para & Shah Faesal. Is this how you treat elected representatives? Why humiliate them? J&K is under martial law & police seems be inebriated with power.”

“Manhandling started when Sajjad Lone was repeatedly frisked & asked to undress. New jail windows are blocked with wood, lack heaters & have surveillance jammers. If a man who PM Modi called his younger brother is being humiliated like this, imagine the plight of others.”

“Sajjad Lone, former separatist turned mainstream political leader, stuck his neck out for PM Modi in 2014 when there was no palpable Modi wave. Lone Sahab’s aged mother refuses to leave Srinagar despite the crippling cold because her son is jailed. Is this humane?

“The same Waheed Para whose work for strengthening democracy in J&K was lauded by former Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh ? The very same Shah Faesal, who was called Kashmir’s role model when he topped the UPSC exam. Once appreciated & now humiliated. Why?”

Later in the evening, she also tweeted, “ I stand by what I said. Local police should be ashamed for lying through its teeth. Dare them to allow these detainees to speak to the media to throw light on what transpired today.”