PSA on Farooq is murder of democracy, says Vaiko

NEW DELHI: MDMK leader Vaiko has said that he was forced to move a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court for his friend of 40 years, Farooq Abdullah, as there was no response from the Centre to his letter requesting his release.
Reacting to Abdullah’s arrest under the Public Safety Act, Vaiko said: “This is murder of democracy. I condemn it.” PSA gives the J&K administration power to keep Abdullah prisoner without trial for up to two years. The provision was imposed hours ahead of the Supreme Court notice to the Centre and J&K administration on Vaiko’s petition.

“I hope Mr Abdullah will get relief from the apex court. In the coming days I would like to visit Kashmir and meet my friend Farooq Abdullah,” he said. Vaiko and Farooq Abdullah’s friendship began in 1980, when he went to Srinagar to meet Sheikh Abdullah.

“My young friend from Tamil Nadu, remember, there is no place in the dictionary of Indian political history either for friendship or for gratitude,” Vaiko quoted Abdullah as saying. “Since then, Farooq and I have been regularly in touch,” Vaiko told ET.

Abdullah has visited Chennai several times on Vaiko’s request, including attending the birth anniversary function of CN Annadurai Vaiko had organised in Chennai last year. This year too Abdullah was supposed to attend the function and Vaiko requested the Centre to release Abdullah for the purpose. “I didn’t get any reply and then I moved the Supreme Court. People of Kashmir have been put in a concentration camp. Their fundamental rights have been totally destroyed,” he alleged. He compared the situation to the Emergency and said that as a defender of Fundamental Rights he was forced to move the SC.

Vaiko had opposed the bill that diluted Article 370. “My heart pains because Kashmir should not become another Kosovo, East Timor or South Sudan,” Vaiko had said in his Rajya Sabha speech. “On this bill, I shed my tears of blood. I may not live more than 10-15 years, but even my grandchildren will not forget this day,” he had said.