Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 8: Several senior Congress leaders have strongly criticized the disbanding of the J&K State and lowering it to UT status, which has far reaching implications on the future of our youth besides loosing distinct identity of Dogra state, as one of the oldest and largest State in the country.
In a joint statement, several senior leaders of the party have regretted that in the abrogation of special status and in the reorganization, the state has been bifurcated and disbanded from state to UT, which is totally arbitrary illegal, unjustified and against the overall interests and wishes of the people of the state, especially Jammu region. This is for the first time that a state is converted to UT, whereas UTs were always upgraded.
They questioned the BJP for awarding punishment to Jammu region too which gave huge mandate to BJP on the promise of ending discrimination and empowerment of Jammu region but by the new arrangement Jammu is great looser and will suffer a lot. They questioned who demanded UT status which is a powerless body. The BJP had promised separate statehood to Jammu but it has finished the existing status of the full-fledged state of special status and reduced it to just like a Municipal body which is totally arbitrary, undemocratic and against the wishes of people. The people of Jammu are feeling cheated again.
They also strongly condemned the illegal and unlawful detention of several Congress leaders and other main stream leaders in the state including in Jammu region. On one hand the Govt of India claims that situation is quite normal and people are sharing meals on streets of Shopian with NSA Ajit Doval, while on the other hand Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad along with PCC president GA Mir were detained at Srinagar Airport and forced to return to Delhi.
They said most of our leaders in Kashmir Valley, Rajouri-Poonch and erstwhile Doda districts etc are under undeclared detention or house arrest and are without any communication. Some senior leaders of Congress and others in Jammu City too have been either under house arrest or asked to stay inside their houses, to prevent any genuine dissent in democracy. They said that it is totally undemocratic in this largest democracy of the world.
The signatories to the statement include, Madan Lal Sharma Ex-MP, Tara Chand Ex-Dy CM, Raman Bhalla, Mula Ram, Jugal Kishore, Mohd Sharief Niaz, Suman Bhagat (former Ministers), Ravinder Sharma (Chief Spokesperson), Balwan Singh, Manmohan Singh, Namrata Sharma, Shah Mohd Choudhary, Yogesh Sawhney, Ch Shah Nawaz (all general secretaries), Ashok Sharma, Ashok Dogra, GL Chalotra, Krishan Bhagat, Indu Pawar (all Ex-MLAs), Vinod Sharma, Shiv Kumar Sharma president INTUC, Udhey Bhanu Chib PYC president, Rajesh Sadotra-Seva Dal, Narinder Sharma, Pranav Shagotra, Sanjeev Panda, Rajiv Saraf and others.
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