Only a few hundred people belonging to ruling party happy in J&K: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Jammu: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is on a six-day visit to the state, claimed that people in the state were disappointed and only few hundred people belonging to ruling were happy after the abrogation of Article 370.

"This is my sixth day in Jammu and Kashmir... People of Kashmir Valley as well as of Jammu are disappointed. Besides 200 people of the ruling party, nobody is happy. Small businessmen including shopkeepers and transporters everyone is disappointed," Azad told reporters here.

The Congress leader further claimed that people were afraid of the state administration.

"People are afraid of the administration. I have not seen such fear of administration anywhere in the world. There is no democracy in the state. When the law changed, democracy also ended here... Freedom of speech and expression and agitation has ended here," he said.

Azad is visiting Jammu and Kashmir after the Supreme Court gave him permission for the same.

However, Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi had said, "He (Azad) will not make any speeches or hold any public rally as per his own submissions."

The government last month had revoked Article 370 which gave special provisions to Jammu and Kashmir. Parliament also passed a bill to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories- Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.