Avtar Bhat
KATRA, Apr 18: Asserting that the Government is fully capable to deal with any situation and eventuality created by separatists and anti-national elements, Union Minister of State in PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today appealed the people not to get panicky over the anti India slogans raised by separatists recently.
“Government is capable in dealing with any kind of situation and therefore I want to reassure the people of Jammu and Kashmir not to get panicky over the issue,”. Dr Singh added.
Speaking to media persons at the sidelines of the BJP State Executive meeting here and later addressing the members of the Party Executive here today, Dr Singh maintained that BJP is a disciplined Party whose cadres are ready to sacrifice every thing for national cause.
He said “we are proud of our ideological legacy which we have inherited as the political descendants of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and, therefore, nobody should, by any stretch of imagination, believe that we can deviate from the core ideals which have groomed us over the years’’.
“We have also no reason to be apologetic about having entered into a political alliance to form a Government notwithstanding our ideological differences because that was our democratic obligation towards the voters and the public to honour their mandate and accept the responsibility as the second largest political group in the Assembly to facilitate the formation of a democratic stable Government’’.
The Government has taken cognizance of everything so they will be able to handle and control the situation to bring back normalcy. They have also learnt from the sequence of last incidents that has happened in last two to three days, he said.
Over security situation, he said “I am sure that the authorities concerned would be able to control the situation sooner than later and therefore the tourist season would remain unaffected”.
“I assure that both the State and the Centre are working in tandem and we should give them opportunity to handle the situation,” he said.
On the issue of revival of separatism in the Kashmir valley, he said “I am sure that both the alliance partners (PDP and BJP) will also take care of the situation keeping in mind the sensitivities of each other and as I have already reiterated that this is an alliance based on governance and development agenda”.
He said the alliance came into existence inspite of the different ideological views and that too was responsibility of the BJP because we were the second largest group and took upon the onus of responsibility of providing democratic Government to the State and its people, Singh said.
“While accepting the responsibility, we have entered into an alliance (with PDP)… rising above the political differences,” he said.
“Both the sides have agreed to commit to the larger issues of development. We always batted for equilateral development of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir. This equilateral development has been a matter of concern in J-K,” he said.
Talking about the two-day State Executive Committee meeting here, he said such meetings are part of a mechanism…which provides an opportunity to introspect…and also provides an opportunity to contemplate the road map to be followed by the BJP workers and leaders in the State in months and years to come.
When asked about differences with PDP over several issues, he said that “we have a Coordination Committee in place on CMP and as has been reiterated time and again”.
“Our agenda of governance will solely be determined by our agenda of governance and programmes without touching upon the contentious ideological issues. I am sure that the BJP leadership in the State is capable of dealing with any kind of situation that arises,” he said.
Dr Singh said that BJP has not given up the issue of separate AIIMS for Jammu region and Party will pursue this demand seriously. He also urged the Party men that without opposing the AIIMS for Kashmir region they are free to demand another such type of medical institute for Jammu region to provide better medicare facilities to the people here also.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, “we should not shy away from demanding an AIIMS for Jammu or else we would be allowing the initiative to be hijacked by others for a cause for which we had struggled and fought for so many years’’.
“We do not have to be either Kashmir-centric or Jammu-centric in our approach while being in power, and therefore, while we do not oppose an AIIMS for Kashmir, the setting up of an AIIMS also in Jammu is very much in keeping with the spirit of the alliance agenda for equitable development of all the three regions of the State’’, he added. In the same vein, he also suggested considering the setting up of a Campus of University in Leh.
Dr. Jitendra Singh supported the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley with dignity and security, and simultaneously also advocated appropriate redressal of the grievances of other categories of refugees, including those from Pak-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) and those from West Pakistan who are still awaiting their citizenship rights.
Maintaining that the workers are main strength of the Party, Dr Singh stressed on their empowerment. “The Governments come and go but workers continue to be our strength’’, he added.
“We belong to an organization which has been in the opposition for six decades and we hardly ever dreamt of coming to power. We could sustain ourselves because of the irrepressible conviction and unsurmountable courage of the organization cadre, which was trained to struggle and survive even in the most hostile circumstances. Now that we are in power, both at the Centre as well as in the State, it is both an opportunity as well as obligation for us to empower our Karyakarta sufficiently enough so that he can sustain himself and thereby, also sustain the organization, in the years and decades to come.”
The Union Minster said “ we should not be ashamed of entering into alliance with PDP as it is a part of responsibility on us in a democracy’’.
Maintaining that Common Minimum Programme (CMP) is a declaration of intent, Dr Singh said that there should be no objection in doing any thing extra than CMP if it is in the larger interests of the people of the State.
In his concluding address to two days State Executive meet Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh recounted the history of the Party and the great sacrifices made by the workers, people and leaders like the founder president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and others which finally brought BJP to power in the State.
Referring to the various innovative administrative measures taken by the Coalition Government, he said we are committed to a clean administration and a responsive governance.
Party State president, Jugal Kishore Sharma, in his address, asked the workers to be ready for local bodies elections in the State and also take the NDA and State Government’s policies and programmes to every nook and corner. He also urged the workers to ensure that people are fully benefited by the policies, programmes and developmental schemes of the government.
Party general secretary (Organisation) Ashok Kaul informed the members about the future programmes saying that workers should gear up for the Municipal and Local Bodies’ elections to take democracy to grass root level.
On the occasion, a political resolution was adopted by the party which reiterates BJP-PDP’s commitment to good governance. Maintaining that Kashmir’s identity is incomplete without Pandits’, it reiterated Party’s commitment on rehabilitation of displaced Pandits in Valley on their terms and conditions, grant of livelihood and meaningful rights to West Pak refugees, one time settlement of PoJK refugees and equitable distribution of funds in all three regions of the State for their equal development. The political resolution was moved by Party chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi and it was seconded by MLA Sat Sharma (CA).
National Executive Member and MLC Ashok Khajuria also shared the dais while senior Party leader and MP Shamsher Singh Manhas was also present in the meeting.
Peoples Conference chief and Minister of Animal Husbandry Sajjad Lone who also attended the meeting was felicitated by Jugal Kishore Sharma, Dr Nirmal Singh and Ashok Koul.
The proceedings were conducted by Munish Sharma, State secretary of the Party.
It may be recalled that Party also felicitated MoS Finance and IT Pawan Gupta during the inaugural session yesterday.
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