*NEW DELHI – Indian Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen vehemently criticised thegovernment’s move on Kashmir, saying it not only emphasised majority rule“as opposed to it sustaining the rights of all human beings”.*

“I don’t think ultimately you will have any resolution in Kashmir withoutdemocracy,” he told an Indian News media outlet in an interview.

Pointing out the loopholes in the government’s decision on multiple levels,the 85-year-old said: “As an Indian, I am not proud of the fact that India,after having done so much to achieve a democratic norm in the world — whereIndia was the first non-Western country to go for democracy — that we losethat reputation on the grounds of actions that have been taken”.

Amid anticipation about the possibility buying land in Jammu and Kashmir bypeople from other states, Dr Sen said it should have been “something forthe people of the state (Jammu and Kashmir) to decide”.

“This is something in which Kashmiris have a legitimate point of viewbecause it is their land,” he said.

He was also critical of the government’s decision to keep the mainstreampolitical leaders of Jammu and Kashmir under arrest.

“I don’t think you will ever have fairness and justice without hearing thevoices of the leaders of the people and if you keep thousands of leadersunder restraint and many of them in jail, including big leaders who haveled the country and formed governments in the past … you are stifling thechannel of democracy that makes democracy a success,” he said.

Lashing out at the Indian government’s ridiculous military presence in thearea in the name of “preventive measures,” Sen said that the excuse held nosubstance and was one used by the colonial occupants in the past.