SHABIR DAR
JAMMU: Bhartaya Janta Party (BJP) Friday threatened of stir if Government of India granted political concessions to Jammu and Kashmir on the recommendations of interlocutors.
“National Conference is demanding autonomy, PDP is for self rule, separatists are demanding Azadi. And now the interlocutors are talking of granting pre-1953 position to the State.
We are here to warn UPA government that if it concedes any such proposals, BJP will launch a nationwide agitation against it,” said senior BJP leader and leader of opposition in LoK Sabha Sushma Sawaraj while addressing party’s ‘Ekta Sankalp rally’ here.
She said till a single BJP activist is alive, they won’t let it happen.
Raking the alleged discrimination with Ladakh and Jammu regions, she castigated the State government for shutting up their eyes towards the ‘nationalistic’ people of Jammu. “Those those who support terrorism, fan separatism and communalism in the State and conspire against unity of the nation are being heard by the government. I want to assure the people of Jammu and Ladakh that BJP is behind you to fight war against discrimination,” Sushma said adding the unrest in five districts of Kashmir took the entire India hostage and this won’t be allowed to happen.
The rally, which was addressed by BJP national president Nitin Gadkhari, former deputy prime minister Lal Krishan Advani, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and other national and state level BJP leaders, sought abrogation of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
BJP president Gadkari held Article 370 responsible for all the problems in the State. “The country (India) is progressing on all fronts but Jammu and Kashmir is still backward with poverty, unemployment and hunger plaguing it. The successive Congress governments adopted wrong policies and did not revoke Article 370 for sake of their vote bank. Because of Article 370, the capitalists of the country cannot invest in the State and such the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are jobless,” he said.
He criticized all those political forces of the State, who are espousing proposals like autonomy, self-rule and secession.
“They (politicians) talk of autonomy, self rule and indulge in pro-Pakistan politics in Kashmir. Has it helped the hungry to get food, a poor man to send his son to school? Instead, it has only helped the divisive politics in the State. BJP wants a united Jammu and Kashmir with no special status and no separate constitution and flag. We will neither tolerate nor allow two constitutions and two flags in the country,” Gadkari said.
In an indirect reference to interlocutors, BJP president said, “Those who are advising the GoI to concede demands of separatists should know that we will never allow these demands to be conceded. There would be no compromise with it”.
“I want to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi why Afzal Guru was not hanged when the highest court of the country has convicted him,” said Gadkari.
Former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani praised the BJP founder Shyam Prashad Mukherjee for “his sacrifices for Jammu and Kashmir”. “The constitutional amendments executed in the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir by GoI after 1953 were because of Mukherjee’s struggle. Before his death, we could not hurl Indian flag in Jammu and Kashmir and one needed permit to enter the State. Mukherjee sacrificed himself on the land of Jammu so that we can hurl tricolor here now. As Jammu is the place of Mukherjee’s death, it has a special place in my heart,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik on Friday lashed out at the BJP for “running an anti-Kashmir campaign.” Terming the recent statement of senior Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader L K Advani that JK should completely integrate with India as “unrealistic,” Malik termed the campaign as highly provocative and asked Advani to recall the events when his party was in power.
“I want to remind you that it was BJP led NDA government from 1998-2004 which wanted to resolve the Kashmir issue. The then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 2, 2001 had reiterated his party’s resolve to solve the Kashmir issue once for all,” Malik said in a statement.