Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday lashed out at the Congress and other Opposition party leaders for trying to visit Jammu and Kashmir without permission. Opposition leaders who tried to visit Srinagar on Saturday, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, were turned back from the airport.

“Did not the recent visit of Congress and other party leaders to Kashmir sans permission similar to giving the Centre and the Governor a chance to do politics?” Mayawati asked on Twitter. “It would have been appropriate if they had thought about it a bit before going there.”

The Centre had scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on August 5. On the same day, a curfew was imposed in most parts of the state.

Mayawati added that her party supported the scrapping of special status for Jammu and Kashmir because its chief ideologue, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, was not in favour of implementing Article 370. “As it is known, Babasaheb was always a supporter of unity, equality and integrity of the country and that is why he was not in favour of the separate provision of Article 370 in Jammu Kashmir,” she said.

“But after the end of Article 370, about 69 years after the implementation of the Constitution in the country, it will take some time for the situation to become normal there,” Mayawati added. “It is better to wait a bit, as has been accepted by the Honorable Court as well.”

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said that Rahul Gandhi has made his invitation to visit the state an “unending business”, ANI reported. “I had said if you don’t believe us then come and visit, later he said I’ll meet people under house arrest, will meet Army,” Malik said. “I said I can’t accept these conditions and leave it to administration.”

Gandhi had put out a video on Sunday of him and other Congress leaders arguing with officials at Srinagar airport, and claimed that they were not allowing him to visit the city despite the governor’s invite. “It is very clear that things are not normal in Jammu and Kashmir,” Gandhi had said.

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