Excelsior Correspondent
RAMBAN, Aug 29: Seeking expeditious identification of fake State subject holders in Jammu and Kashmir, Provincial President Devender Singh Rana today lambasted the previous PDP-BJP Government for sitting over the issue and compromising with the rights, dignity and identity of the people.
“The erstwhile coalition had a definite and sinister design to trample the special status of the State, which is why forces inimical to the Maharaja Hari Singh Ji’s vision and legacy of permanent resident laws were let loose and encouraged to challenge Article 35A”, the Provincial President said while addressing workers at Patnitop in Udhampur district this evening.
He referred to the misinformation campaign unleashed by the BJP about Article 35A, saying this proviso is, in fact, guarantee to the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in general and the permanent residents of Jammu in particular. He decried BJP’s attempts to create hysteria over the issue and dared the party to carry out a referendum across Jammu to find out the will of the people in this regard.
He said that the BJP’s consistent tirade against Article 35A raises apprehensions about clandestine deal reached with some illegal non-state subjects, who want to strengthen their hegemony in Jammu.
The Provincial President said that overt and covert attempts of repealing Article 35A has put the State at cross roads of history and cautioned that tampering with this proviso is economically detrimental for the people of Jammu in particular, as youth will be deprived of jobs and the local business community will suffer due to influx of big business houses and traders from outside the state.
“Generating hysteria is a ploy of the BJP to hide its three-years of failure on all fronts and to push the state to political instability”, he added.
Rana took the BJP head on for depriving the erstwhile Doda district of development, saying the three years of its mis-rule with the PDP has pushed the entire region to backwardness with projects initiated by Omar Abdullah led Government either getting abandoned or facing implementation hiccups.
Senior National Conference leader and former MP, Sheikh Abdul Rehman questioned the voices in favour of abrogation of Article 35A and wondered why these are silent over unique status being enjoyed by Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Goa etc as per various sub sections (A to G) of Article 371.
Addressing the workers, former minister and District President Doda Mr Khalid Najeeb Suharwardhy pledged to defend the Article 35A and lamented over sinister designs of the BJP to satiate its peculiar agenda.
Provincial Vice President and former MLA Dr Chaman Lal advised the BJP to shun its myopic understanding of Article 35A and said that its continuation is in the larger interests of the people of all the three regions and sub-regions of the State. He blamed the BJP for pushing the State to the wall during over three years of misgovernance.
National Conference District President Ramban, Sajjad Shaheen described the PDP-BJP rule as nightmare for Jammu and Kashmir in general and the remote districts like Ramban, Doda etc in particular.
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