Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 16: JKPCC working president Raman Bhalla today asked Home Minister Amit Shah who addressed a rally at Paddar today, when will full Statehood return to the Union Territory and alleged that this will turn into another Jhumla like hundred others which didn’t see light of day.
Bhalla was addressing election gathering at Maishian in RS Pura Jammu South constituency today. He noted that since the fall of the PDP-BJP Government in 2018, Jammu and Kashmir has been administered by Modi Government. Posing questions to the HM, Bhalla asked when will full Statehood return to Jammu and Kashmir. He alleged that since 2018, the people of J&K have been denied any avenue to express their grievances.
While claiming to have ended special status for J&K, the Government had in fact created an extra-special situation of a new and unique political system; one where the State had been downgraded to a UT, elections suspended, and all norms of constitutional morality violated,” he alleged. In his speech in Parliament on December 11, 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah Stated that full Statehood to J&K would be restored at an “appropriate time”, he pointed out.
“Five years after being stripped of their Statehood, the people of J&K still lack clarity on what the timeline for this return of Statehood is. Based on the experience of the last five years, where the Assembly elections were delayed on one pretext or the other, the people of J&K don’t buy the center’s assurance of restoration of Statehood,” Bhalla said .
“One of the most repeated talking points of HM is that the Government’s decision on Aug 5, 2019 has curbed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The mood on the ground in J&K, however, is one of anxiety. At least 53 security personnel have been martyred to the South of Pir Panjal since 2021, in an area where there were no major incidents of terrorism between 2007 and 2014,” he said.
“In the last few months, it has spread even to neighbouring districts that we considered largely peaceful, as evinced by the attack in Reasi on the 9th of June, the attack in Kathua on the 10th of June, in Doda on the 11th of June in Udhampur on the 19th of August and in Kishtwar on September 13. Infiltration from Pakistan is rising along the International Border, and a palpable sense of insecurity prevails across J&K,” the Congress leader said.
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