Defeat BJP’s divisive politics, give our alliance absolute mandate: Cong MP
Senior Congress leader Nasir Hussain on Thursday appealed to people to see through the divisive designs of the BJP’s politics and vote to give an absolute mandate to the alliance of the Congress and the National Conference in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, the Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka said his home state too enjoyed a special status under Article 371-J. Several other states also enjoy special status under the Constitution for certain safeguards, he noted.
He slammed the BJP for allegedly disbanding, dividing and downgrading the full-fledged state of J&K into a Union Territory, depriving people of their identity, dignity and status.
Will fight for J&K’s rights
The BJP disbanded, divided and downgraded the full-fledged state of J&K into a Union Territory, depriving people of their identity, dignity and status. The Centre gave the false promise of restoration of statehood, but has not fulfilled it even after five years. The Congress and the INDIA bloc would fight for the restoration of statehood and genuine rights of Jammu and Kashmir. —Nasir Hussain, Congress MP in Rajya Sabha
Hussain cautioned the people against the “communal and divisive” agenda of the BJP and its strategy to create dissension, defections and division of votes. He urged to voters to cast united vote for the NC-Congress coalition so that the alliance could get an absolute majority and fight for the restoration of democratic rights to the people.
“The Centre gave the false promise of restoration of statehood, but has not fulfilled it even after five years, otherwise elections should have been held after restoring statehood,” he said. He further said just before the poll, the Centre snatched more powers from the elected government and vested it in the Lieutenant Governor.
He said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would fight for the restoration of statehood and genuine rights of J&K. He said that the recent attempt to unilaterally amend the Waqf law could not succeed due to the strength of the INDIA bloc in the Parliament.
“Now, the Opposition is strong due to the mandate of the people, although we fell short of a few seats to form the government,” the Rajya Sabha MP added.
The Congress leader said that the BJP was scared of the strong NC-Congress coalition, so it was trying to adopt different measures of division in Kashmir, but people are understanding their game plan. He also lashed out at the BJP for trying to malign the image of LoP Rahul Gandhi for speaking about the “prevailing strain on India’s democracy”.
He highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited various countries in the last 10 years and spoke against all previous governments to garner self-praise.
“When Modi started the tirade against previous governments and PMs from the foreign soil and maligned the country, why the entire ecosystem of the BJP and RSS remained silent then,” asked Hussain.
He went on to talk about the guarantees announced by the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday regarding modern health facilities — 25 lakh insurance cover, Mahila Samman of Rs 3,000 per month, five lakh interest free loan, welfare of Kashmiri Pandits and OBC’s rights under the Constitution. He added that more guarantees and a comprehensive manifesto shall also be released in due course of time.
