Bandh politics: CCI playing in BJP’s hands, alleges Congress

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 20

Even as the Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI), Jammu, deferred its call for a shutdown today, political parties in the region continued to rake up the issue for different reasons.

A day after BJP charged the CCI with playing in the hands of separatists for giving the bandh call, today it was the turn of Congress to take on the traders’ body for deferring the shutdown call, blaming it with toeing the line of the BJP.

Raman Bhalla, vice-president of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), while addressing a function at the party office in connection with the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, said the situation had gone out of control due to its mishandling by the Centre and state government at the initial stage. Both the governments were responsible for the present situation.

Bhalla questioned the withdrawal of the bandh call by CCI-Jammu. The unholy alliance of PDP-BJP was the root cause of the present situation of the state, he said. “At present, the traders are facing great hardships due to the Kashmir turmoil but it is unfortunate that the BJP, instead of supporting traders, has misguided the CCI. Due to the negative roll of the BJP, the traders of Jammu suffered heavy loss in the 2008 agitation also,” he alleged.

Bhalla cautioned the people against the BJP and the CCI who had “played a negative role in the issues of AIIMS and NIT in Jammu”.

While paying tributes to the former Prime Minister, the PCC chief described Rajiv Gandhi as the architect of Panchayati Raj system in the country. He fulfilled the dreams of great leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, to delegate powers of planning and development to the grassroots institutions of democracy, so that people shaped their own destiny as per their needs. He translated the concept of participatory democracy at the grassroots levels, Bhalla added.