The Congress on Thursday ran a powerful social media campaign on the completion of one month of the Kashmir lockdown, arguing it was difficult to find a parallel in world history with the situation in the state.

Along with charts containing statistical details to counter the government’s claims, videos of Kashmiri students living in different parts of the country and senior Congress leaders have been posted to buttress the point that the “unconstitutional and undemocratic decision” had played havoc with people’s lives.

The campaign could also be a lesson to sceptics within the party who had failed to see the government’s abrupt decision in its totality.

Kashmiri students have been shown on videos talking about structural violence in the state and their sense of alienation from the Indian society.

“Haven’t talked to my parents after August 3. I can’t pay the rent because money hasn’t come from home. No money to eat; for how long can I drag on with borrowings,” one student says.

Another says: “We have a feeling that we don’t belong to this society.”

One video shows former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad saying: “There is no parallel in world history; such a thing didn’t happen in India even before 1947. A law is made for a state by keeping the entire population in captivity….”

Another video has Shashi Tharoor speaking about a “constitutional sleight of hand”. “Kashmir was plunged into darkness; people were shut into homes, politicians detained, phone lines cut, no internet, no colleges, no schools, no exams…. Reports of seething sullenness and unhappiness are coming from every part of the state. The constitutional sleight of hand shown by the government has been extremely worrying for everyone who cares about democracy,” Tharoor says.

“This is a dreadful situation; politicians, intellectuals, activists, businessmen are in detention for one month,” says Manish Tewari in another video.“If the decision is good and the situation is normal, why this lockdown…?”