Mamata Banerjee breaks silence, questions government

Kolkata: Breaking her silence, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday raised questions on the “procedure” instead of the “merit” of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 through which the Narendra Modi government revoked Article 370 of the Constitution that had given special status to Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The West Bengal chief minister stressed that her party would not support the bill, which she suggested should have been discussed with all parties and especially the people of J&K.

Extending her support to two former J&K CMs, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, over the news of their house arrests, Ms Banerjee observed that they were not “terrorists.” But her statement somehow lacked the fierce criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah that she is known for. “What is going on from yesterday, I am also watching it as a citizen of this country. We all are the patriotic people and we love India, our motherland and our people like anything (sic),” Ms Banerjee said at the Kolkata Airport before leaving for Chennai to unveil a statue of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and former Tamil Nadu CM M. Karunanidhi.

She elaborated, “I firmly believe that Kashmiri people are our brothers and sisters.I do not agree with the procedural method. I am not talking of the merit of the bill. I am talking about the procedural method where my party has taken a strong decision. We cannot support this bill and we cannot vote for this also. If we vote for this also, it will be recorded that we have ultimately directly or indirectly accepted this because actually it is not praiseworthy constitutionally, legally, technically and democratically what they have done. They should have discussed it with all political parties and local people of Kashmir also.”

She noted, “They could have called the meeting in Kashmir even. We were willing to go there. We could have decided it there and talked to the people. We had to take people in confidence to decide it.”