JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Wednesday accused BJP of betraying people by putting the region’s land and jobs on “sale to outsiders”.
Bhalla, a former minister, repeated his party’s demand for restoration of statehood to J&K saying the party will launch an awareness programme to tell people about the drawback of not getting statehood for J&K.
“BJP had promised to protect the land and jobs of J&K but has betrayed the huge mandate (from Jammu) it got and opened up sale of land and jobs to outsiders, while in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, no outsiders can purchase land,” the working president of the party in state said.
Addressing a meeting of district congress committee, Jammu (Rural), Bhalla said the ‘Naya Kashmir’ of BJP was weak on democratic moorings and nothing like the original idea.
“Compelling narratives of progress, modernity and development to justify the unconstitutional actions in J&K have fallen flat. Aggressive policies of BJP towards the region have hurt its development path and its economy,” he said.
He alleged that the BJP was on a mission to disenfranchise people of J&K with its selective policies and a coterie of federally appointed officers bereft of democratic bearings.
“The downpour of fresh investments, job extravaganza, and infrastructure amplification is nowhere visible on the ground. ”Far from delivering on much-touted development promises, the people of J&K are continuously being denied their rights, even the right of being governed by a popular government,” he said.
Bhalla alleged that the government has failed to reconcile with the legitimate political aspirations of the people of J&K. “Today democracy in J&K is facing onslaughts from none other than the ruling party itself. Ideally the political and ideological difference should have been put aside while dealing with a sensitive region like that of ours,” he said.
He said the major stress of the government should have been to mitigate the miseries of the unemployed youth who regrettably have grown up in conflict, yet it did “nothing substantial” in that regard.
The Congress leader said Jammu has witnessed huge setbacks due to the revocation of statehood and ‘suppression’ of political and civil rights by the BJP-led government.
“The economy has also suffered immensely due to the government’s irrational policies and decisions,” he said.
“It is high time the Centre kept its promise of giving back the region its statehood so that people can exercise their political rights by choosing a democratic government,” Bhalla said.PTI
