Mohammad Raafi
SRINAGAR
Indian National Congress (INC) Tuesday said that the Jammu and Kashmir Police were “not trust worthy”. Congress demanded action against J&K Police cops involved in the National Institute of Technology (NIT) issue.
The demand came up when a Congress lawmaker, Jyotiraditya Scindia, raked up the issue of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Hazratbal in Lok Sabha.
Initiating a debate on NIT issue in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia held Jammu and Kashmir police personnel responsible for “lathi charging” the non-local students.
Severe clashes had erupted in Nit on April Ist when non-local engineering students damaged college and private property. They had even thrashed some Kashmiri students and a Courier boy.
The following days witnessed non-locals boycotting classes and demanding posting of non-local faculty at the NIT besides other demands.
This came on a day when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met NIT students and assured them that his party would raise their concerns with the Union Government.
Scindia ridiculed the “mild lathi-charge” statement of BJP’ J&K Dy CM. He said, “it was akin to rubbing salt on the wounds.”
“Students do not trust the J&K police. Insecurity continues to prevail on campus, but those giving lectures on nationalism are quiet,” the MP said.
Participating in the debate, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Assadudin Owaisi said that 3,000 personnel of Jammu and Kashmir police have “laid down their lives serving the nation”.
“To say we do not trust them is an insult,” he told the Congress lawmaker.
The posturing of Congress in Lok Sabha contradicts its work in Jammu and Kashmir. To appeal its constituency in Srinagar, the Congress has been, of late, attacking Hindu Nationalist BJP viz-a-viz nationalism debate.
Stating Union Government’s stand on the NIT issue, Minister of state for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, “the Union government did not make a unilateral decision to deploy three companies of the CRPF in the campus.” “This had been done at the request of the NIT authorities. The outside periphery would continue to be guarded by the J&K police,” he added.
However, Owaisi sharply reacted saying, “the presence of CRPF in the NIT campus was going to alienate the Kashmiris further.”
Referring to the massive participation of Kashmiris in the funeral prayers of militants, Owaisi said, “this shows how much alienated the people of Kashmir are from mainland India.”
“If the alienation was not stopped,” he said, “no amount of CRPF would be able to create emotional or physical security.”
