No article 370 in Pakistan, says BJP

Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has asked the Kashmiris demanding Azadi to find out how their counterparts and particularly those living in Gilgit and Baltistan are treated by Pakistan and how the people from the Northwest Frontier are being brought and settled to alter the demography in so-called Azad Kashmir.

"They should remember that there is no article 370 in Pakistan. Here in India they atleast enjoy democracy but they would not have the same freedom there," Prasad warned. He cautioned those journalists who were writing in favour of Kashmiris being allowed to seceed from India must answer if they would support similar response from other states demanding freedom like the ULFA in Assam," the BJP spokesperson said.

He produced extracts from the European Parliament to argue that India has a better record as far as human rights violations are concerned. The report is written by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, and reminds us that former army chief and president of Pakistan had told former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that Pakistan would not allow its territory being used against India.

Manmohan Singh's forward looking vision that 'borders cannot be withdrawan but they should be made meaningless', has been quoted in the report.

"India is world's largest secular democracy and has evolved democratic structures at all levels, whereas Pakistan still lacks full implementation of democracy in Azad Kashmir and has yet to take steps forward in Gilgit and Baltistan. There have been reports of torture and mistreatment and of discrimination against refugees from Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir," the report alleged.