Excelsior Correspondent
BHADERWAH/RAMBAN, Nov 20: Launching a blistering attack on BJP for taking a U-turn on the issue like Article 370, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha & former J&K Chief Minister said that BJP had always been using such sensitive issues to flare up sentiments of the people and today they seem to have sold the trust of the people by asking them to forget it for the sake of gaining power in J&K.
Addressing public rallies at Gandoh, Kastigarh, Bharthi and Nail in Bhaderwah, Inderwal and Ramban areas today, Mr Azad said that BJP has always betrayed the trust of the people of Jammu and the recent glaring example of this betrayal was the cross voting of seven BJP MLAs in the MLC elections. He said the party leaders can not befool the people always for their vested interests.
Mr Azad, who was accompanied by Mohammad Sharief Niaz-MLA Bhaderwah, G M Saroori- MLA Inderwal and Ashok Dogra- MLA Ramban, said that the people of J&K are slowly getting aware about the divisive and dual-faced politics of BJP. He said the U-turn of BJP on Article 370 should leave none in doubt about the hunger of BJP to gain power.
He said, “People of Jammu feel cheated by the opportunistic politics of BJP and it is the ruse of BJP to hide under the grab of ‘national issue’ which no one in J&K is going to buy, and certainly they will be given a befitting reply by the people of the State”.
While lauding the Congress Party for having a consistent and practical stand on issues like Article 370, Azad said, “We have the satisfaction of never having tried to befool people for the sake of votes and gaining power and we have tried to promote inter-regional harmony and communal amity as against BJP which thrives on discord, divisiveness and polarization.”
“Congress empowered Jammu & for the first time ensured a fair and equitable treatment to all the regions of the State and I feel sorry that BJP cheated the people of Jammu in the name of Article 370, only to leave them floundering for the sake of attaining power”, said Azad.
Castigating the BJP for openly hobnobbing with separatists and having under-the-table parleys in its desperation to attain power at any cost, Azad said that people have taken note of the somersaults and opportunistic politics of BJP. He said that politically conscious people of J&K cannot be duped by the contradictory stances the BJP.
Countering the propaganda being spread by the BJP about the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, Azad said that they are misleading the people by trying to float the impression as if something is being done for the first time, adding that he as Chief Minister, in a very short span of time, took real and meaningful steps for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits and it was the UPA Government which sanctioned a financial package to this effect.
Regretting the non-seriousness of the State Govt towards the issue of dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits after 2008, Azad asserted that it is the Congress Party which can ensure the dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits. He said that after stupendous efforts of Congress Party in persuading the NC, State Government had recommended a package for the PoK refugees, and NDA Government has trashed the whole issue only for the sake of vote-bank politics.
Asserting that the sanctioning of five Medical Colleges, two Cancer Institutes and ‘National Institute of Medicinal Plants’ at Bhaderwah, two Maternity Hospitals, in addition to upgradation of numerous hospitals, CHCs, PHCs, and setting up of new sub-centres in the State will transform the health sector of the State in the coming days, Azad said that as Health Minister, he also took a landmark decision of doubling the allocation of three Hill States of Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and J&K under NRHM..
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