The Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Gani Lone today opposed Centre’s decision to ban JKLF saying that “highhanded” approach will not achieve anything.
Sajad Lone asserted that JKLF has already renounced violenceand termed New Delhi arresting its leaders ‘an exercise in futility andtantamount to suicide.’
“Delhi’s highhanded approach is shrinking space for peacefuldissent. Such tactics have been tried and tested in the past but nothing hasbeen achieved out of it. JKLF has renounced violence in the 90s and there is noneed to ban them”, he added.
Reiterating his demand to revoke ban against Jamaat-e-Islami(JeI), PC chairman said that the spirit of democracy lies in resolvingdifferences through dialogue and negotiations asserting that New Delhi mustunderstand that muscular approach will further complicate things rather thansolving them.
“Despite being banned and its prominent leaders arrested inthe past, JeI has managed to construct hundreds of schools and educatethousands of children. Comparably, the two traditional parties, even afterruling for seven decades, haven’t been able to construct quality schools,” headded, in apparent reference to NC and PDP.
While launching a scathing attack on two dynasties, he saidthey rigged elections and despoiled the state. “They create hurdles for peoplewho want to open private schools”, he said while comparing JeI’s social workwith that of the performance of “dynastic parties.”