Ahmedabad/Srinagar: NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat has courted controversy with his remarks that shutdown of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 did not have any significant effect on its economy as people there only use the facility for ‘watching dirty films’.
The comments defending the suspension of Internet in J-K drew strong reaction from trade body Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) which demanded his immediate removal for uttering ‘this nonsense’. CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury also hit out at Saraswat and said that the latter needs to read the Indian Constitution.
Saraswat made the controversial remarks Saturday in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar after attending the convocation of the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
“What difference does it make if there’s no internet there? What do you watch on internet there? What e-tailing is happening there? Besides watching dirty films, you do nothing there,” Saraswat told reporters on a query about suspension of internet services in J-K. “If there is no internet in Kashmir, it does not have any significant effect on the economy,” he added.
Saraswat also said that internet services were suspended in Jammu and Kashmir to prevent certain elements from ‘misusing’ information that could affect law and order situation there.
Condemning Saraswat’s remarks, KCCI president Sheikh Ashiq said it is unbecoming of a person entrusted with serious responsibilities to make such statements that ‘malign the population of Kashmir’.
Ashiq said the Valley is suffering due to the internet shutdown and the losses to the business sector here have amounted to over Rs 18,000 crore.
“We at the Chamber know that our economy has been deeply affected by the suspension of internet services. Every sector of our economy has suffered a great deal. If any person says something like this, it speaks a volume about his mind capacity. He has no right to sit in the NITI Aayog,” asserted Ashiq.
“We condemn these remarks. They are spreading venom against the people of Kashmir. Nobody gives him the right to speak like this about the people of Jammu and Kashmir and utter this nonsense against us,” Ashiq added.
The KCCI has recently submitted a detailed report about the business losses in the Kashmir valley to Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal as well as MoS PMO Jitendra Singh.
Ashiq said the Union Territory is going through a very difficult and challenging phase and people like Saraswat at the NITI Aayog can do no justice to Jammu and Kashmir and demanded his immediate sacking.
It should be stated here that Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir administration ordered the restoration of the prepaid mobile service in the Valley after over five months of suspension besides the 2G mobile data service on postpaid connections for accessing ‘whitelisted’ sites across the Jammu division.
“This man is a member of the NITI Aayog. He needs to read the Indian Constitution to update himself, and can start with the Preamble. There are numerous anti-CAA/NRC protests in every town and city across the country, and he will easily come across the Preamble in them,” Yechury said on Twitter Sunday while tagging Saraswat’s remarks.
PTI
VK Saraswat, KCCI, Trade, Jammu and Kashmir, NITI Aayog, Sitaram Yetchury
