‘Cong-NC dividing people on communal lines’
Excelsior Correspondent
DODA, Oct 7: Making a scathing attack on National Conference (NC) which accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of killing of its two workers in Srinagar city of Kashmir valley, Union Minister of State in PMO with Independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh termed the statement of NC leadership “self contradictory”.
Talking to reporters here today on the sidelines of a party meeting of BJP Municipal candidates of Doda, Bhaderwah and Thathri, he said on the one hand the NC has boycotted the elections and repeatedly claimed that the party has not fielded any candidate from any where in the State and on the other hand they have fielded the proxy candidates.
Dr Jitendra Singh said had party fielded the official candidates they would have been provided security by the Government but this way the NC leadership has exposed its own candidates to grave security risk and the party is also exposing its duplicity of fielding the proxy candidates.
He said that the National Conference has fielded proxy candidates and did not own them which, is main reason for the killing of these candidates. “How NC claimed that killed persons were NC workers as the party has already boycotted the polls. The NC is in frustration as people of the State are not ready to fall into its false propaganda’’, he added.
He said both People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC) fled away from Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and Panchayat elections as these parties already knew that they will be trounced by the BJP candidates at the hustings.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the parties befooling people for the last 60 years have been exposed as more and more people are coming close to BJP. “Today the party has large number of Muslim candidates which is sufficient to prove that the propaganda of some so-called political parties regarding BJP was baseless.” He appealed the candidates to go into the public and further exploit these parties for their misdeeds.
The Union Minister while turning tables on opposition parties including Congress accused them of exploiting the people on the name of so-called secularism for years together and divided them on the name of religion and region. But during the last four and half years there is a sea change in the country as no where any communal riot took place because “We believe that a Hindu should be a true Hindu and Muslim a true Muslim’’.
He said the Doda district also witnessed communal violence during the NC-Congress rule but no such incident took place during our Government. He said not a single candidate of the BJP in present electioneering is trying to divide people on the name of religion and instead trying to bring them more closer to promote peace, amity and brotherhood.
Dr Jitendra Singh said there is total changing atmosphere all over the country and people live in complete peace and harmony after Modi Government took over in May 2014 “because we don’t chant so called secularism and exploit the people on the name of same’’.
Later, Dr Jitendra Singh lashed out at Opposition parties during the local body election campaign here. He accused Congress and its ally National Conference (NC) of dividing people on communal lines and said that for decades together, these parties have sought votes by dividing the innocent masses on the basis of community and caste. Congress always accused BJP of being communal, while it itself played the communal card under the garb of so-called secularism, he said.
In the last six decades, Dr Jitendra Singh said, every election in the Doda region was fought by Congress and other parties on the basis of religion and caste, as a result of which, the entire region was subjected to intermittent phases of communal tension and strife, which were meant to sustain the political dominance of these parties. It is the BJP, he said, which has in the last four to five years, changed the entire trend and sought to give a new political culture based on all-inclusive development and all-inclusive electioneering, enabling the people to rise above the communal divide, without slightest consideration for caste, creed or religion.
Calling upon the candidates contesting the Municipal Committee elections from Doda and Bhaderwah to go door to door, Dr Jitendra Singh said, they must tell the people to raise the question as to why Doda was lacking in development for so many decades, even though it had been consistently represented by powerful leaders as Ministers in the State and the Union Cabinets. To cite one example, he said, even in 1960s, the Health Minister of the State hailed from erstwhile Doda and later Doda was also represented by Health Ministers in the Union Cabinet, but it was only the BJP-led Modi Government which set up a Medical College here. Similarly, he pointed out, the Ganpat bridge which had been left incomplete for years together, was completed recently.
It goes to the credit of BJP to have reinforced the importance of Municipal Committees and Panchayats by calling for local body elections after over a decade, Dr Jitendra Singh said adding the elected representatives from local bodies will be able to address the day-to-day issues of the common masses and provide a vital link with the MLA and MP. In addition, they will also get the benefit of Central grants amounting to nearly Rs.10,000 crore which is meant exclusively for the local bodies and Panchayats, he said.
Former Minister and MLA Doda Shakti Raj Parihar and MLA Bhaderwah Dilip Singh Parihar also spoke on the occasion.
Later, Dr Jitendra Singh held a separate meeting with the BJP candidates contesting from the Ramban Municipal Committee and exhorted them to reach out to the people at grassroot level.
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