The improvement of his party’s tally in Haryana, where he is in charge of the Congress, means nothing to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The Rajya Sabha MP choked at a public meeting on Jantar Mantar Road, in which several Opposition leaders spoke against the mess Kashmir is in after the removal of its special status, and the Centre’s facilitation of a visit by largely Right-wing members of the European Parliament.

Azad said: “Three former chief ministers (Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti) are locked in cages in Kashmir. A fourth former chief minister (Azad himself) is stuck in Delhi. And you take European MPs to Kashmir where political leaders of Kashmir are in jail, and India’s MPs are not allowed to go there without the court’s permission.”

Commenting on the constitutional changes and the clampdown, he added: “If democracy existed, then this wouldn’t have happened in Kashmir.”

On Tuesday, the CPM politburo protested “the visit of some members of Parliament from various European countries with Right-wing credentials to Kashmir Valley orchestrated by the Modi government”.

The party called it “an affront of the Indian Parliament and its sovereignty”. While Indian MPs and the political leadership of national parties are denied the freedom of visiting the Valley, reportedly some “private visit by foreign parliament members is being allowed”.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury was denied entry into Kashmir and was able to go there only with a court order to meet party leader M.Y. Tarigami.

In a statement calling for the removal of restrictions on movement in the state, the politburo said: “Though it is claimed that this is a private visit, the Prime Minister has met them and they are also being briefed by the national security adviser. There can be no special privilege for a group of foreign parliamentarians to visit the Valley, while it is denied to others, including our own MPs and the national political leadership with most of the known political leaders of the state continuing to remain in custody and detention.”

At the meeting on Jantar Mantar Road, politburo member Nilotpal Basu said: “The BJP and the RSS have had ties with these anti-immigrant Far-Right parties for some time now…. It is shameful that some regional parties (in India) that should have spoken the loudest against this are grovelling in support of the government.”

On Tuesday, Binoy Viswam, CPI parliamentarian and editor of the party newsletter New Age, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow him to visit Kashmir.

The party’s national executive member, Annie Raja, who recently led a fact-finding team to the state, said: “The PM has challenged parties (to declare they will) bring back Article 370. You are so strong and have all the military at your disposal. We challenge the 56-inch-chest PM to tell even one ‘half-widow’ of Kashmir where her missing husband is.”

“Half-widow” is a term used to describe women whose husbands have allegedly gone missing after detention by security forces in the state.

National Conference leader Muzaffar Khan said: “The solution to this crisis is to not make J&K the election manifesto for the whole of India. Don’t use J&K as a red herring for elections in the whole country. Children as young as 13 years old have been tortured. If we are an ‘atoot ang’ (integral part) of India, then try and heal the ailing state, don’t amputate us.”

The Peoples Democratic Party’s former MLA, Firdous Tak, recently released from detention, said: “(In the Lok Sabha), 72 MPs voted against the removal of Article 370. They are those who stood with the progressive thought that has kept this country together…. You can arrest us, but you can’t arrest our voices or our character.”

Leaders of the BSP, Rashtriya Janata Dal, CPIML-Liberation and the J&K Peoples Movement also took part in the meeting.