India Should Be Represented In Kashmir By Compassion And Not Bulldozer, Say Mainstream Parties

While former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the People's Conference president Sajad Lone described the government’s move to demolish houses as bulldozers “induced lawlessness” saying “best thing Indianess should be represented in Kashmir shouldn’t be a bulldozer but compassion and love”, in New Delhi, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said those people having papers of their land even from the time of Dogra rule are being termed as encroachers.

“Are we creating a lawless society in Jammu and Kashmir, where ever you take your bulldozer, you keep media along with a warning that no one should ask questions? People have been warned if you raise questions over this demolition,” Omar Abdullah said talking to reporters in Srinagar. “I am getting complaints that this bulldozer drive has become a source of corruption with people being asked to pay to get exempted from an encroachment list circulated through social media,” he added. Omar said bulldozers should be a last resort rather than the first step. He said the government should come up with a scheme to regularize housing colonies as is done in New Delhi and other places. Additionally, he said that the government’s move to bulldoze the houses of Kashmiris shouldn’t be linked with the upcoming parliamentary elections as the issue will not resonate in the country.

People's Conference President Sajad Lone said not a day passes when the government says they will not touch the poor and also not a day passes when videos of structures of the poor are demolished. “Either the videos are lying or the LG office is lying,” Lone says. 

He said that notices are not given to the people before bulldozing the houses. “The biggest question is what the objective of the government is. Does the government want to retrieve the land or do they want to humiliate the people of Kashmir? I think humiliation is more important to them,” Lone said. 

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“Our LG is from the UP. Has the whole land been retrieved in UP? The government should understand the present LG administration is a makeshift arrangement. They should leave some bigger decisions to the elected government. They cannot take all decisions. At the end of the day they are not elected by people,” Lone said. 

“95 per cent of encroachers are being shown as Muslims. Two or three people from other communities are also shown for a façade, rest are all Muslims. You cannot do this,” he said. “This demolition is carried by a cabal of officers who are against the elected government and those who are asking for elections. It is this cabal who is doing it and after two years they will not be here. Either they might be transferred or retired. They are tourists and these tourists are doing this much destruction. They will have an impact on society. If you are creating homelessness and if you are inviting homelessness, then we have to bear its social impact. These tourists will leave. Get out of this arrogant mode.”

Lone says these six to seven bureaucrats who are doing it shouldn’t construe themselves as angels descended from heaven and have the moral authority to barge into the homes of the poor and bulldoze them. “There has been a history of conflict in the region. After a long time, we have been building our lives. Don’t become disrupts in our lives,” he added. "Let the Chief Secretary" and others come out of what Lone says, “their arrogance” as India should be represented in Kashmir by compassion, love and affection, not by a bulldozer. “I don’t think the best thing Indianness in Kashmir should be a bulldozer,” Lone said.

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While protesting in New Delhi, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti accused the BJP government of behaving, what she alleged, "like an East India Company in Kashmir." He said the BJP talk about one constitution and one flag but at the same time under which Constitution and law they abrogated Article 370. She alleged that the BJP is turning Kashmir into Afghanistan by bulldozing houses of people. “What is this so-called encroachment drive?” she asked. She said those people having papers from the time of Dogra rule are being termed as encroachers. She alleged grazing land in Ladakh has been occupied by China and the government is after land lying with Kashmiris.