15 Foreign envoy poses for a photograph on the banks of Dal Lake during their visit to Srinagar

NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday slammed the Modi government for leading a delegation of foreign envoys to Kashmir even as it was continuing to disallow opposition leaders permission to visit the region.

It accused the government of adopting double standards and leading "guided tours" to claim normalcy when three former chief ministers are under house arrest and one - Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad - was compelled to approach Supreme Court for permission to visit. "We demand that the government allow unfettered access to J&K to all politicians and not resort to guided tours for envoys," senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said.

He also demanded "positive political activity" in J&K, lacking in the past five months. "The PM and the home minister are only indulging in statements and counter-statements, claims and counter-claims. Congress wants that meaningful political activities should be initiated in J&K at the earliest. This political tourism of taking the ambassadors on guided tour of J&K should be stopped. This is our demand in the context of J&K," he said.

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