Jammu, Aug 06: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Working President Raman Bhalla on Tuesday said that J&K has “lost its identity” under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and appealed to the people to support Congress in the “fight” for the restoration of statehood.
“BJP regime has destroyed Jammu and Kashmir in various spheres, as it lost its identity, status, right over jobs, lands, opportunities of trade and transport and business besides whatsoever selections and recruitment were done in the UT, witnessed corruption and scams,” Bhalla said while interacting with the “aggrieved” people of Shankar Nagar Ward-49 Channi Ramma Bahu Constituency.
He said, “People have been exploited in the name of a bright future, control prices, and two crore jobs annually. But all their promises have fallen flat, except politics of hate and division. Jammu and Kashmir was a historical state with much better living conditions than most states in the country, but now it has been pushed into an atmosphere of political uncertainty.”
He said that further delay in restoring statehood was bound to cause more disconnect between the Centre and J&K people, who he said were feeling hurt after the Centre’s move to downgrade the historical and full-fledged State into two Union Territories without their consent.
“The Centre has to address that disconnect, at the right earnest, keeping in view the urges and aspirations of the people,” he said.
Bhalla asserted that Congress is the only viable alternative to the “divisive policies” of the BJP which he said “has vitiated the political, social, secular, and democratic atmosphere in the country and Jammu and Kashmir”.
The JKPCC leader gave a clarion call to the civil society, students, youth, traders and farmers of Jammu to “unite” for the cause of the region, saying, “It is high time that pro-Jammu forces joined hands to defeat and dethrone those who had betrayed the cause of the Dogra land”.
“The very leaders in whom Jammu reposed its faith had betrayed it and relegated it to worse than second class status. The faith of the Jammu people in the present dispensation had been completely shaken in view of unprecedented bias to which the region had been subjected,” he said, adding, “Let’s unite to fight the nefarious designs of those who are desperate to demolish our culture and destroy our pristine glory.”
Bhalla said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been left without an elected government for the last six years. “The blame for this suspension of democracy lies entirely with the Centre. It is only the Supreme Court-imposed deadline of September 2024 that has forced the Centre to conduct the polls now. Can the BJP explain this long delay in holding the elections? Why has he clung so desperately to power in a state where the people never chose to be led by him?” he asked.
