Farooq Abdullah and P Chidambaram to be absent from Parliament on Constitution day

There has been no case, proof, trial and charge sheet against National Conference President Farooq Abdullah. He has also not been accused of instigating people but former union minister Yashwant Sinha, who is in Jammu and Kashmir has been unable to meet him yet.

Farooq Abdullah along with Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram has not been unable to attend the winter session of the Parliament. Both Chidambaram and Abdullah will be absent from the parliament on the Constitution day as well.

Asked about the detention of several mainstream political leaders, including sitting Member of Parliament Farooq Abdullah - whom he talked to over the phone, Yashwant Sinha accused the Centre of "destroying a significant buffer" in the Valley and creating a vacuum as people have no one to go to with their grievances. Sinha has not been able to meet Abdullah as of now.

He termed as very "unfortunate" and "painful" the detention of Abdullah, a political representative elected by the people.

"They have destroyed a significant buffer which was there and they have created a vacuum..there is nobody to talk to," Sinha said.

He claimed that since the group was not allowed to carry out with its programme that involved travelling and meeting people in the towns and villages in the districts outside Srinagar, it was an indication that the government wanted to hide the ground reality from the rest of the country.

The group, which arrived on Friday on their first visit to the Valley after the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, met several delegations and individuals during their stay before leaving for Delhi on Monday afternoon.

The group members were asked by the police not to move outside Srinagar as the situation was not conducive and there was a threat of an impending terror attack, which Sinha termed as "a deliberate ploy" by the government to restrict their interactions with common people.

The Opposition in the parliament has continuously raised the concern of the detention of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who is a member of the Lok Sabha. They demanded that Abdullah be allowed to attend the session, but the government did not give a definite response, unidentified officials earlier said.

On December 17, Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said , “How can a parliamentarian be detained illegally? He [Farooq Abdullah] should be allowed to attend Parliament.”

National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi had said the government was under constitutional obligation to ensure Abdullah’s participation in the Parliament session. Azad had also said MPs have in the past been allowed to attend Parliament even if their cases are being heard, and so Congress MP P Chidambaram, who is in the Tihar jail, should also be allowed to attend.

Abdullah, along with two other former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, were detained after the Centre stripped the erstwhile state of its special status in August. Farooq Abdullah has been charged under the “public order” section of the Public Safety Act, which allows authorities to detain a person for six months without trial. The Centre has repeatedly claimed the leaders were in detention as a precautionary measure.