NEW DELHI, Mar 27:
Pledging full support to the new PDP-BJP Government to be formed in Jammu and Kashmir, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Centre may add to the Prime Minister’s Rs 80,000 cr package announced in November last if resources permit.
“There are two guiding factors. One is the agenda for governance and one is the Prime Minister’s package. There is so much in the Prime Minister’s package that even if our resources permit us year to year, we will add to it,” he said in an interaction.
“Therefore, I think this is a great opportunity to have the popular Government there which implements each one of these suggestions,” he added.
Asked if the Centre would encourage them to implement the package, the Finance Minister said, “we are fully committed on that.”
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 80,000-crore package for building a modern, progressive and prosperous State.
The package includes money for providing relief and rehabilitation of 2014 flood victims, rehabilitation of West Pakistan refugees and Kashmiri migrants, Roads and Highways, Health and Tourism.
Meanwhile, both Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and JNU events were “ultra-Left movements” also involving a small section of “jehadis”, Jaitley contended today.
In the case of JNU, the predominant section of those involved in the agitation was “ultra-Left” barring a small section of “jehadis”, who had their faces masked during a demonstration on the campus on Feb 9 in which anti-national slogans were raised, he said.
The name of Dr B R Ambedkar was “unfairly used” in the case of HCU where protests erupted after the suicide by a research scholar Rohith Vemula, Jaitley said.
He drew satisfaction from the fact that religious and minority groups and their leaders across the country had not participated in the debate set off by the events in the two universities.
“The moderate Left and the Congress had got trapped into what was otherwise a movement of the ultra-Left,” the Minister said, adding that the BJP had therefore taken it as an ideological challenge.
The BJP had won the first round of this “ideological debate” in the sense that everybody had to come at least “close to the position we were taking”.
Asked if he expected more rounds in the debate, the BJP leader said that it was not a battle his party had started. “We are not raising the debate to this extent (of further rounds) but if somebody against starts the whole idea, then the debate will certainly carry on.”
When asked if the BJP was reaping political dividends by raising the nationalism debate, Jaitley said, “I am not looking for a dividend. This was an ideological positioning and we have made our point. On this battle I don’t think we can lose.”
Jaitley said they took it as an ideological challenge and “whether for posturing or otherwise, as the core debate proceeded….At least they were pushed into this position (to say Jai Hind instead of Bharat Mata Ki Jai). I am quite happy and satisfied that they were pushed into this position.” (PTI)
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