‘Maharaja was sent into exile under conspiracy’
Avtar Bhat
BASOHLI, Apr 2: Turning tables on National Conference (NC) for demanding separate Prime Minister and President for Jammu and Kashmir by reverting back to pre -1953 position, the Union Minister and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Parliamentary constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that NC was misleading the people over the issue.
Addressing a series of massive public meetings in the Basohli Assembly segment here, Dr Jitendra Singh said that NC leaders are forgetting that in 1975, the then NC chief, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah had meekly accepted to become Chief Minister, and not Prime Minister, when he was restored back to power by Indira Gandhi after having remained in political wilderness for over two decades.
He said how long the NC leadership will mislead the people of Kashmir over this non issue which was buried by none other than the NC founder and former Chief Minister, Sheikh Abdullah himself who accepted Chief Minister’s seat gladly after signing of Baig -Parthasarthy accord in 1975.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that they (NC leaders) must know that the needles of clock can’t go reverse. He recalled that, at that time, even the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi had snubbed Sheikh Abdullah by categorically stating that the clock can’t be turned back. Thereafter, he said, Sheikh Abdullah, in his haste and enthusiasm to keep the Government of India in good humour, set up a committee, called “Devi Das Thakur Committee”, and passed a resolution in the State Cabinet stating that all the provisions of the Constitution of India extended to Jammu & Kashmir were in the interest of the people of the State.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, when Sheikh Abdullah had himself accepted the present Constitutional position of the State then whom NC leaders’ including former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah was befooling. The National Conference’s latest stance does not come as a surprise because this Party has a long history of taking a U-turn when out of power so it is for the Congress Party to explain whether it endorses the current stand taken by its alliance partner.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that beginning from first president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and later Bharatiya Janata Party have made three generations of sacrifices for “Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan”, and will therefore, never allow the NC’s secessionist designs to succeed in near future. After obtaining absolute majority in both the Houses of the Parliament, BJP will carry forward Late Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s agenda in toto.
Taking a dig at the Congress and National Conference campaigners and their claims on secularism, Dr Jitendra Singh said that greatest damage to secularism in the country was done by these two parties.
The Congress aligned with communal forces where it suits them and NC aligned with separatists and anti nationals when it suited the party leaders.
He said the hands of Congress leaders are soaked in the blood of minority Sikh community members in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination and still it claims to be secular. The party played communal card in the elections of 1983 in J&K while NC played the same card in Kashmir by joining hands with pro-Pak Awami Action Committee (AAC) of Moulvi Farooq and the flags of NC and AAC were unfurled jointly in the Valley.
Dr Jitendra Singh said NC was responsible for exodus of minority Hindus from Valley and any body who gave justice to Sikhs was BJP which made it a point that those responsible for attacking Sikhs be punished under law. Moreover, it was BJP which stood by Kashmiri Pandits shoulder to shoulder after their mass exodus and also is committed to their rehabilitation in Valley as per their aspirations.
Hitting out at Congress and NC, the Union Minister said Congress was responsible for exile of former ruler of the State, Maharaja Hari Singh after hatching a conspiracy with Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in this regard.
He said it was former Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru who conspired with Sheikh Abdullah to send Maharaja in exile. The present demand made by NC that there should be a separate PM for the State is also a conspiracy as Congress is maintaining silence over it.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the social media is flooded with evidence-based `Selfie With Development campaign’, which has gone viral highlighting the enormous landmark projects of last five years, but the Congress and National Conference leaders are so rattled that they continue to be in denial mode saying that no development has taken place in last five years, whereas everyone except them and the people in general are unanimously lauding the revolutionary development and the national projects brought to this constituency in the last five years.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Congress campaigners tell a lie every day but “we would also refute this by telling the truth every day”.
He then once again enumerated the important landmark development projects brought in the constituency during the last five years and referred to several first-ever mega projects, including Keediyan-Gadhiyal bridge, Engineering College, two Medical Colleges, Seed Processing Plant, Industrial Bio-tech Park, two Highway Villages, Katra-Delhi Expressway road corridor for which survey has already begun, Radio Station and Devika Project in Udhampur, National Institute of High Altitude Medicinal Plants at Bhaderwah, two Degree Colleges in Kathua district, Pakkal-Dul Project at Kishtwar, Atal Setu in Basohli, Juthana Bridge, Phinter Bridge, three landmark road tunnels namely Chhattergalla tunnel, Khilaini-Sudh Mahadev tunnel and Kaljugar tunnel, 12 BRO bridges including the Devika Bridge and Beini Bridge, etc.
In addition, he said, the injustice of the past was also undone by granting 3% reservation to people living on the International Border (IB) on the same lines as was already available to residents living along the Line of Control (LoC). Bunkers, Seema Bhawans and toilets in the border villages and four times increase in the honorarium of SPOs.
Those who accompanied Dr Jitendra Singh during more than a dozen such meetings lasting several hours included former MLA Jagdish Raj Sapolia, Chairman Basohli Municipal Committee, Shammi Sapolia, district president Prem Nath Dogra, State Executive Member, Janak Bharati, State secretary Raghunandan Singh Babloo, Mandal president, Advocate Rakesh, spokesperson Advocate Shashipal, BJYM national Executive member Bharat Sharma and several local Surpanchs and Panchs.
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