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Will put pressure on BJP to restore statehood in J&K: Rahul Gandhi
Congress leader and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah addressed rally for Congress candidate Shah Nawaz Choudhary at Surankote in Poonch district.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that the Congress would put pressure on the Centre if it failed to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood after completion of the assembly elections.
Addressing a rally for Congress candidate Shah Nawaz Choudhary at Surankote in Poonch district, Rahul said, “There have been instances when Union Territories were made states but never in the history of independent India was a state downgraded into a UT.” In this context, he cited the examples of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
“For the first time, a state was converted into a UT. Your democratic right was snatched from you. Therefore, our first demand will be to make Jammu and Kashmir a state again. We will put pressure on them (BJP) and if they don’t do it then we will do it,” he said.
On August 5, 2019, the BJP-led central government had revoked Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The Congress leader also accused the BJP and the RSS of spreading hatred to divide people in the name of religion, caste, creed and region, and claimed the Congress had opened “shops of love in the markets of hate” to counter them.
“They have pitted Paharis against Gujjars and Bakerwals. We have to take everyone along. For us, all are equal,” he said.
In March, the Jammu and Kashmir government had accorded 10% reservation to Paharis and three other tribes, which in turn took the total reservation under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category to 20% and other backward classes (OBCs) to 8%. Besides, 15 new castes were added in the list of OBCs on the recommendation of the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) commission.
He also claimed that the INDIA bloc had “broken the psychology” of Prime Minister Narendra after the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah said, “This fight is against hatred being spread by the BJP and the RSS. They are trying to create a divide so that they can get power.”
Gandhi also termed the lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha as the “king” who cannot understand the region’s problems and an “outsider”.
Canvassing for Congress’ local unit president Tariq Hameed Karra, who is contesting from Shalteng, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc has changed Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s psychology.
“The confidence he [the PM] used to have has vanished now. The old Narendra Modi isn’t visible now. You see him on television. I watch him closely at parliament. The face and mood of the PM has entirely changed. And credit for this goes to the India alliance, Congress coalition partners and the people of the country,” he added.
Gandhi said that Karra had informed him about the HMT factory close to the venue being shut, adding, “In India, Narendra Modi has closed many big factories and privatised them. They (government) only work for two-three billionaires, they waived off loans of ₹16 lakh crores of 25 people. For poor people, farmers, labourers, students and women they don’t waive off loans. For billionaires they waived off loans of lakhs of crores.”
The leader said the new GST and steps like demonetisation hit the small and medium businesses. “Now in the country and J&K, youths don’t get jobs. There are no jobs for unemployed youths and degree holders. This is the politics of Narendra Modi,” he added.
Gandhi said the PM and the BJP leaders have been spreading hatred wherever they go for the past 10 years. “They are involved in fights between brothers, different regions, languages and also states. They have spread hatred in the entire country,” he said, adding that people of Jammu and Kashmir know that “love” was the answer to hatred. “This is your history, thinking and culture,” the leader said.
“”Wherever they went, the people associated with the BJP spread ‘hatred’ but we opened the ‘shops of love’. We will keep on doing this,” Gandhi said of his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
He reiterated that throughout the course of history, no state had ever been downgraded to a UT, adding, “For the first time the right of people to state was snatched and they were downgraded into UT. This is injustice done to you and your democratic rights were snatched from you.”
Gandhi said Modi never talks on real issues like unemployment, price rise or statehood. “Modi not only snatched democratic rights of people but whatever decision the people used to take here like for development, related to universities, colleges or health, earlier assembly members used to take those decisions,” he said.
Rahul also spoke about the Congress manifesto and its focus on social welfare, employment, health and education sectors.
