Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju slammed Jammu and Kashmir Administration for asking the people to end their ‘self imposed’ shutdown. In a Facebook post he wrote, “The J&K Administration, headed by that modern Nero, has issued full page advertisements in local Kashmiri newspapers asking the people to end their ‘ self imposed ‘ shutdown, and resume normal lives. This fatuity really takes the cake.”
He added, “Does that fat caporegime ( whose Don and Consiglieri sit in Delhi ), that real life Clemenza, not know that Internet and mobile phones are not luxuries but necessities today, and without lifting the prohibition on these, lives can never be normal for Kashmiris ? Depriving people of Internet and mobiles even for one day can make a person’s life miserable, what to say of 70 days. Is this prohibition on mobiles and Internet ‘ self imposed ‘ ?”
Justice Katju claimed that many Kashmiris have died because they could not get timely medical treatment in absence of these facilities. He informed that earlier, a form could be filled in and submitted online from home, but now people in Kashmir have sometimes to travel 20 kms or more to get it and submit it.
Maintaining that Communication by Kashmiris living outside Kashmir with relatives living inside is difficult and curfews and other restrictions have made lives of Kashmiris hellish, Katju said calling the restrictions as ‘self imposed’ is like adding salt on their wounds.
“I really think the persons ruling the state are out of their minds” he lashed out.