Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 30: National Conference today accused the BJP of demeaning and insulting massive 2014 Jammu mandate by superimposing its lust for power over pride and aspirations of the self-respecting people of the region.
“The 2014 Jammu mandate wasn’t so weak to have not been negotiated and bargained for rotational Chief Ministership while entering into North Pole South Pole alliance with the PDP twice between 2015 and 2016”, National Conference Provincial Spokesperson Madan Mantoo said in a statement issued from Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here, adding that anti-climax of the BJP’s brazen political opportunism shocked politically matured people of Jammu when it hobnobbed with a two-member party of north Kashmir and enthusiastically agreed to play second fiddle to it.
The spokesperson said the memory of the Jammu people is not so short to forget how the 25-member strong BJP contingent extended support to Peoples’ Conference chairperson Sajjad Gani Lone as Chief Minister ahead of the dissolution of Legislative Assembly. How can a party that could not assert its massive strength to stake claim for Chief Ministership keep showing day dreams to the people of Jammu for having the one this time around, he asked.
Reacting to a statement of the BJP spokesperson in reaction to the press conference of Devender Singh Rana Provincial President National Conference, Mantoo said that instead of responding to key issues he, as usual, indulged in rhetoric by repeating the beaten track and monologue.
He said Jammu is not ignorant about the developmental initiatives taken during NC dispensations in the region, which require volumes to spell out. He observed the BJP cheerleaders, who happened to be part of National Conference at some point of time, must be knowing well all this but tend to behave like ignorant.
Ignorance about facts is no excuse, he said and urged such leaders to see through the past after removing their myopic lenses. “Everything will appear crystal clear to them once they do so”, he added.
As regards the issues pertaining to citizenship rights to West Pakistan Refugees, declaration of holiday on the birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singhji or cancellation of holiday on account of Martyrs Day, Mantoo asked the BJP as to what it did in this regard during over three years while being part of the Government in Jammu and Kashmir. As far as respite to displaced refugees is concerned, the people know how the BJP sabotaged the National Conference Government’s recommendations on one time settlement compensation of Rs 25 lakhs by downgrading it to meagre Rs 5 lakhs, he added.
The spokesperson advised the Jammu BJP leadership to have some sort of introspection and ‘Manthan’ and apologise to the sagacious and self-respecting people of Jammu for ditching them. “They cannot hide themselves under the umbrella of national leadership, as their role as local public representatives for addressing local issues has been quite dismal”, he added.
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