KL News Network
SRINAGAR
At the time when Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani’s passport issue has snowballed into a political crisis, the lawmaker from Langate Friday reacted to certain media reports claiming passport denial to separatist-turned-unionist Sajad Lone, saying the denial has exposed the “damn ill designs” of New Delhi vis-à-vis Kashmir, besides its trust-deficit on local leadership.
“If New Delhi is afraid of issuing a passport to a minister who is in alliance with the party claiming to be most nationalist and ruling the country, how can a common Kashmir expect from the present govt and its ministers to protect its rights,” Er Rashid said.
He said ministers suffer themselves at the hands of “colonial mind set” of New Delhi, and questioned: “Why should New Delhi claim that it treats Kashmir as its crown or integral part.”
Rashid said if CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and people like Sajad Lone are not trustworthy for New Delhi “then it is high time for New Delhi to make a confession that it has lost its faith on even those few individuals whom it was portraying to have got faith in Indian democracy restored.”
Not issuing passport to Sajad Lone, he said, has proved that New Delhi has miserably failed to win hearts and minds of Kashmiri people and treats the only way of controlling Kashmir at the barrel of gun.
“It certainly means that it will take New Delhi another century to create few loyalists in the valley,” he said.
