J&K has become a bureaucratic fiefdom controlled by the BJP-RSS cabal: Congress

NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress on Saturday asked when will full statehood return to the union territory and alleged that the region has “become a bureaucratic fiefdom controlled by the BJP-RSS cabal”.

Prime Minister Modi addressed an election rally in the Doda district of Jammu region in support of BJP candidates.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh noted that since the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018, Jammu and Kashmir has been administered by Modi government.

Posing questions to the PM, Ramesh asked when will full statehood return to Jammu and Kashmir.

He alleged that since 2018, the people of J&K have been denied any avenue to express their grievances.

“The region has become a bureaucratic fiefdom controlled by the BJP-RSS cabal. While claiming to have ended special status for J&K, the government has in fact created an extra-special situation of a new and unique political system: one where the state has been downgraded to a UT, elections have been suspended, and all norms of constitutional morality violated,” he alleged.

In his speech in Parliament on December 11, 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah stated that full statehood to J&K would be restored at an “appropriate time”, Ramesh pointed out.

“Five years after being stripped of their statehood, the people of J&K still lack clarity on what the timeline for this return of statehood is. Based on the experience of the last five years, where the Assembly elections were delayed on one pretext or the other, the people of J&K don’t buy the center’s assurance of restoration of statehood,” Ramesh said in his post on X.

Can the Prime Minister give a straight answer to this key question as to when will full statehood return to Jammu and Kashmir, he asked.

Ramesh further asked who will take moral responsibility for the loss of two Indian Army personnel to militant attacks in Kishtwar on Friday.

“One of the most repeated talking points of the non-biological PM is that the Government’s abrogation of Article 370 has curbed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. The mood on the ground in J&K, however, is one of anxiety. At least fifty-three security personnel have been killed to the south of Pir Panjal since 2021, in an area where there were no major incidents of terrorism between 2007 and 2014,” he said.

“In the last few months, it has spread even to neighboring districts that we considered largely peaceful: as evinced by the attack in Reasi on the 9th of June, the attack in Kathua on the 10th of June, in Doda on the 11th of June, in Udhampur on the 19th of August, and in Kishtwar on 13th of September. Infiltration from Pakistan is rising along the International Border, and a palpable sense of insecurity prevails across J&K,” the Congress leader said.

“The non-biological Prime Minister has been conspicuously silent even amidst this surge in militancy,” he said.

Why has Modi’s government failed to salvage the security situation in J&K and what is his vision to restore normalcy, he asked.

“Why is the central government consistently lying to the country about the security situation in J&K?” Ramesh said.

He further asked why has there been a “sharp increase in narcotics smuggling” under the Union government’s administration.

One fundamental reason for the upsurge in militant activity, particularly in Jammu, is the sharp rise in narcotics smuggling over the last few years with the International Border in Jammu rather than the LoC in Kashmir, being the primary area of operation for the smugglers, he claimed.

Narcotics consumption has seen a 30 percent hike in five years, and the smuggling rings have become very sophisticated, with involvement even of government officials, he alleged.

Between 2019 and 2023, state police and other security forces seized over 700 kg of heroin valuing roughly Rs 1,400 crore in the international market, he said.

This is apart from the 2,500 kg of charas and nearly 1 lakh kg of opium derivatives seized across J&K in the same period, he said.

“J&K has even become a transit destination for drugs, routing them to states like Punjab and Gujarat, and even international markets. Former J&K DGP Dilbag Singh has gone on record to say that the ‘Drug menace is a bigger threat than militancy’,” Ramesh said.

Six years after having acquired unelected power, what has the Union government achieved in curtailing the drug menace, the Congress general secretary asked.

Ramesh also alleged that the government “failed” to support Kashmiri Pandits.

“The BJP has exploited the misery of the Kashmiri Pandits in every election campaign. However, ten years after coming to power, the Government and the Home Minister have done absolutely nothing for the community and have not even held a meeting with the community’s representatives,” he said.

In consultation with the community, the Manmohan Singh government had devised a 6,000-job employment package for Kashmiri Pandit youth to take up jobs in Kashmir Valley, Ramesh said.

“For all the bluster of the current Government, that remains the last major intervention by the Union Government to rehabilitate the Pandit community, even amidst a nationwide social and political consensus for the community’s Gharwapsi,” he said.

“Does the non-biological PM view the community only as a talking point? Why has he neglected the community’s interests over the last decade?” Ramesh said.

Why has Jammu and Kashmir’s economic situation only declined since 2019, Ramesh further asked. (PTI)