ISLAMABAD - The Kashmir Valley’s pro-India politicians appeared to treat Indian Independence Day with scorn, mostly staying away from the celebrations, skipping the customary greetings, and some even mocking the absence of celebrations in the territory.
Indian English daily The Telegraph said the Valley-based pro-India politicians did this as a sign of the anger at last year’s abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, Kashmir Media Service reported.
As per the English daily, Mohammad Akbar Lone, National Conference Lok Sabha member from Baramulla, summed up the mood, saying he had stayed away from the celebrations because he no longer accepted August 15 as his Independence Day. “We don’t accept it as our Independence Day,” Lone told the daily.
“We did not go because the event is not ours…. It is natural (that people should feel this way after the scrapping of Article 370). The relations between them and us are bad,” Lone said. “We have no relations with them. How can we accept them and take them as our own? It cannot happen.”
As per The Telegraph, it checked the Twitter handles of nearly two dozen senior Valley politicians, including Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti (whose daughter operates her account with her permission) and Congress leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ghulam Ahmad Mir. None had a word of salutation, it added.
