MLA Langate Er Rashid Friday expressed surprise over the media reports that one of the senior cabinet minister Sajad Lone is without a passport.In a statement to KNS he said, “If the media reports that the minister is without a passport are true, then it not only speaks about the large volume of trust deficit between those who are believed to be representing Delhi in Kashmir but also exposes the damn ill designs of New Delhi viza viz Kashmir. If New Delhi is afraid of issuing a passport to a minister who is in alliance with the party claiming to be most nationalist and ruling the country, how can a common Kashmir expect the current government and its ministers to protect its rights.”
“If ministers suffer themselves at the hands of colonial mind set of New Delhi why should New Delhi claim that it treats Kashmir as its crown or integral part? If Mufti Sahib and people like Sajad Lone are not trust worthy for New Delhi then it is high time for New Delhi to make a confession that it has lost it’s faith on even those few individuals whom it was portraying to have got faith in Indian democracy restored. Not issuing passport to Sajad Lone has proved that New Delhi has miserably failed to win hearts and minds of Kashmiri people and treats the only way of controlling Kashmir at the barrel of gun. It certainly means that it will take New Delhi another century to create few loyalists in the valley,” he added.