Kishtwar, Sep 26 (KNS): National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday lambasted BJP for building empty rhetoric by exploiting Hindu sentiments with sinister designs of galvanising support for petty political gains.
“For decades the political mantra of the BJP has been “Hindu Jago” (Awake Hindus) and today we too want Hindus to get awakened but in a different connotation to differentiate between exploiters and benefactors”, Rana said while addressing workers here this afternoon.
“In fact the time has come for all Indians, irrespective of caste, creed and religion to get awakened to defeat the forces, who are using religion for political ends, forsaking the welfare of the people and the nation”, he added.
Rana said the people must ponder as to what they have lost and gained ever since the BJP partnered PDP in state government. The party with difference has ended up with indifference towards the common man, he maintained.
The Provincial President said the BJP was not doing any good to the state or the nation by polarizing diverse society, which has largely remained secular and inclusive despite communal onslaughts. He said consciousness is fast growing among people about the hidden BJP agenda, which is why they were distancing themselves from myopic politics of divide and rule. In Jammu, once a core constituency of the BJP, this realization is dawning rather fast, he added.
In this context, Rana referred to the recent outburst and backlash of a section of society against senior BJP stalwarts in Jammu, saying instead of reading the writing on the wall, the Deputy Chief Minister chose to blame the National Conference for the volatile public resentment. By doing so, the BJP cannot explain its fast dwindling graph in the region, he said, adding, “If National Conference is so strong in the supposedly BJP bastion of Jammu, then the party has a reason to get jittery, panicky and should sit down to introspect, as to why those who were their supporters are turning their backs towards them”.
The Provincial President said the sequence of events in recent past expose vulnerability of the BJP on its home turf due to its abject neglect of people, misgovernance, failure in keeping promises, backing out from the rhetoric slogans, playing reactionary politics and above all pushing the Jammu region to backwards. He posed several straight questions by asking the BJP leadership as to what had happened to promises of getting hydel projects back despite being signatory to PDP’s Agenda of Alliance, generating jobs for unemployed youth, depositing Rs 15 lakhs to each ban account, creating safe logistics for the border dwellers and ensuing overall development of the state.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp ChannelHe regretted that most of the projects, initiated during the tenure of Mr Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister, have either been abandoned or put on hold by the present dispensation. He referred to the power projects like Raple, Keeru, Kwar, Kalnai and Sawlakote in particular and said these had potential to change the economic scenario of the Chenab Valley region. He said prices are soaring up unprecedentedly and people have been forced to run helter skelter for even basics of life. “This is the BJP version of Ache Din”, he added.
“On the contrary, the BJP has been a main contributor to discrimination with Jammu and depriving the people of their legitimate rights”, the Provincial President said, adding that hollow sloganeering has failed in even keeping their support base intact. He said discontentment among people is growing, as developmental process and administrative machinery has come to grinding halt due to lack of political direction. While Kashmir is burning, the Jammu is at cross roads of its history. He said the state has been pushed to crisis like situation in the past over three years.
Rana cautioned the BJP against playing with fire by whipping up communal passions, saying the pain in the ‘crown of this great country’ due to wrong policies will fester into a wound that can take into its grip the entire body physique of the nation.
Speaking on the occasion, former minister and National Conference MLC Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo stressed the need for strengthening the bonds of amity and brotherhood as per the legacy of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah.
Kichloo cautioned against divisive politics being penetrated into the socio-political fabric of the pluralistic state and hoped that politically sagacious people will isolate such elements by maintaining time tested unity, amity and tranquility.
Prominent among those present on the occasion included former minister Abdul Gani Malik and Khalid Najeeb Suharwardhy, former legislators Qazi Jalal-ud-Din and Dr Chaman Lal besides District President Kishtwar Tanveer Kichloo and District President Ramban Sajjad Shaheen. (KNS)