New Delhi: Asserting that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 is normal, the government on Tuesday maintained that it would not "follow in the footsteps of Congress'' and it has no desire to "detain leaders unnecessarily".
Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that the detained political leaders in J-K will be released by local administration at an "appropriate time" and there will be no Central interference.
Responding to supplementary queries during Question Hour, Home Minister said that the leader of principal opposition party Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was not bothered about the general public but was concerned only about 'political activities' in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said since the abrogation of Article 370, not a single death took place in police firing and 99.5 per cent students wrote their examination papers and courts functioning were normally.
"Is political activity only definition of normalcy in the state", he asked.
The Home Minister said - ''There was no curfew and Section 144 Cr Pc was not imposed under police stations. Elections were held peacefully in blocks and panchayat levels as never before". Taking on the Congress party again, he said the Congress leadership had detained National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah for 11 years but ''We are not going to follow in the footsteps of Congress''.
"We have no 'ichha' (desire) to detain leaders unnecessarily. When the administration decides, they will take steps,'' he stressed.''Your culture is to interfere not ours,'' he said, directing his reply to the Congress members.Amid din, Congress floor leader Chowdhury raised the issue of detention of leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, including NC leader Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.(UNI)