“Nothing more anti-national than...”

Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whose brother Rahul Gandhi was turned away from Srinagar airport yesterday, ripped into the authorities today in a series of tweets. There is nothing more "political and anti-national" than denying Kashmiris their democratic rights, she wrote.

The Congress had vehemently opposed the government's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split the state in two union territories that took place earlier this month, NDTV reports.

In her posts, Priyanka Gandhi enclosed a video clip of a distraught woman speaking to Rahul Gandhi about the problems she is facing.

Rahul Gandhi had planned to visit Jammu and Kashmir to survey the ground situation following a Twitter exchange with Governor Satya Pal Malik. But he and the other opposition leaders were turned away from Srinagar airport by the administration.

Mr Gandhi said it proved that the situation in Kashmir valley was not normal as claimed by the authorities.

Claiming the journalists accompanying him were manhandled, Mr Gandhi said, "Some days ago, I was invited by the Governor to visit Jammu and Kashmir. So I accepted the invitation. The Governor had suggested that everything was normal and that he would send me a plane to visit the state. I told him, I don't need your plane but I will accept your invitation and I would come to Jammu and Kashmir."

Hours before his visit, the Jammu and Kashmir Information and Public Relations Department tweeted, saying political leaders should not "not visit Srinagar as they would be putting other people to inconvenience" at a "time when the government is trying to protect the people of Jammu and Kashmir from the threat of cross border terrorism and attacks..."

GY