Accusing the govt of double standards in dealing with different political parties in the wake of abrogation of Art 370 and continued placement of opposition leaders under house arrest, a strong contingent of JKNPP held a massive protest at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu today. The NPP protestors with national flags in their hands assembled near the house of its party Chairman Harsh Dev Singh and raised anti BJP and anti govt slogans seeking the release of detained Jammu leaders at the earliest. “Sarkari Atankwad nahin chalega, nahin chalega”, “Rashtravadi Netaon ko riha karo, riha karo”, Internet services bahal karo, bahal karo”, “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, “BJP ki goonda gardi nahin chalegi, nahin chalegi”.

            Mr. Harsh Dev Singh, who is under house arrest since August 5, broke the Police cordon and joined the protesting activists after having a scuffle with the Police personnel deployed outside his house. “You can’t have two sets of laws – one for BJP and the other for opposition leaders. You are allowing the BJP leaders to organize political rallies and publicity campaigns while keeping the opposition leaders under house arrest. How can anyone justify such a dichotomy in the functioning of the govt. How can you give differential treatment to political entities on the basis of their political affiliations” questioned Harsh Dev to the Police officers who tried to stop him from venturing out of his house. “You can scare the corrupt leaders and simpletons by your terror tactics but not me” said Singh who broke the Police ring to join the protesting activists. He was however taken into custody by Police officers and again placed under house arrest by increasing the strength of Police personnel outside his residence.

            Cautioning the govt to stop fiddling with the civil liberties of opposition leaders of Jammu in particular, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that such autocratic moves could prove counterproductive. He said that rather than subverting the democratic rights of opposition leaders and keeping them under preventive detention, the govt ought to have taken such nationalist leaders into confidence. He regretted that while opposition leaders had been restrained from meeting people or the press, the BJP leaders were granted open license to address public meetings and to hold party functions at their free will especially in the constituencies of detained opposition leaders. The opposition leaders can’t be placed under prolonged confinement only for the reason that they differ with the ruling party over certain issues” said Harsh who is under detention for the last around 30 days since August 5.

            “The decisions of Govt need to be logical and not ideological. Curbing of civil liberties and choking of inconvenient voices is an anti thesis to the very concept of democracy. Even the Supreme Court has acknowledged the right of dissent when it ruled that Dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If it is suppressed, the pressure cooker would burst. The right to dissent should not be muzzled by use of brute force or authority. Allow liberal democracy to flourish. There is no place for “Tuglaqi farmans” in a democratic set up. Politics of suppression and repression is unacceptable. Remember, suppression of democratic values has done no good to any regime”, said Harsh Dev Singh.

Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Pratap, Parshotam Parihar, Khajoor Singh, K.K Sharma, Surinder Chouhan, Rajesh Gondhi, Rashpaul Singh, Mohit Mankotia, Deepak Thukral, Rakesh Verma, Munish Sharma besides others.