PDP criticises barring Kashmiri scribe from receiving Pulitzer Prize in person

People of Jammu & Kashmir are being punished not only for existing but also for excelling after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in 2019, says party’s newsletter

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) monthly newsletter, which was tweeted by party president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday, said the people of Jammu & Kashmir are being punished “not only for existing but also for excelling after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in 2019” and this was evident in preventing a Kashmiri journalist from receiving the Pulitzer Prize in person.

“The abrogation of special provisions of Article 370 has knocked the wind right out of us and we have hit rock bottom whether it is our economy or our environment. We are punished not only for existing but also for excelling. Take the example of Sanna Mattoo, a Kashmiri journalist who won the Pulitzer prize. She was stopped at immigration and prevented from going abroad to accept her prize,” the official mouthpiece of the PDP, Speak UP, said. 

The newsletter launched a scathing attack on the policies pursued by the Centre in J&K after August 5, 2019. 

“After the abrogation, the GOI (Government of India) has been in a hurry to pillage everything whether it is sand from our rivers or our hydroelectric power. And while they claim to have Jammu’s best interests at heart, their actions speak otherwise. As if ending the ‘Darbar Move’ wasn’t enough, the government’s nod to opening Reliance stores in Jammu will be detrimental for the local businesses,” it said.

The newsletter further said a spate of targeted killings has forced Kashmiri Pandit families in Shopian and other parts of the Valley to leave for Jammu amid the BJP’s claims of the return of normalcy to Kashmir. 

The PDP also targeted the Lieutenant-Governor’s administration over its recent decision to observe October 26 as Accession Day in J&K. “To kill the Instrument of Accession, our special status, and then celebrate Accession Day is absurd just as it is ironic,” it said.

The party also criticised the recent incident in Jammu’s Akhnoor, where members of Bajrang Dal allegedly “threatened the students from offering prayers”. “This is exactly what the BIP means by ‘national integration’ after scrapping Article 370. What was happening in the rest of the country is finally happening in Kashmir and Muslims are getting the same treatment that they get elsewhere in India,” it said.