Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday said that terrorism has not ended in Jammu and Kashmir, and there has been suffocation in the Union Territory for the last ten years.
She was addressing a rally in Bishnah, Jammu, to mobilise support for the party ahead of the final phase of the assembly elections on October 1.
Priyanka also targeted the BJP for taking away Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
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“The Congress is committed to ensuring the restoration of statehood and the 150-year-old Darbar Move here,” she said.
The Darbar Move involved shifting the government to Jammu in the winter, benefiting traders and hoteliers as hundreds of employees and their families relocated to Jammu for three months from Kashmir. There has been a growing demand in Jammu to restore this practice.
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Priyanka criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for speaking about restoration of statehood.
“It is the BJP that snatched the statehood of J&K, and now they are seeking people’s support to restore it again,” she said.
She pledged to restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, saying the Congress has a vision for J&K. “The Congress will protect the land and job rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
She said the installation of smart meters will be stopped if the party is voted to power.
“The pending bills of the people will be waived off,” she said.
She said the rehabilitation process for Kashmiri Pandits, which began during the tenure of Manmohan Singh, will be resumed.
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She targeted the government over terror incidents, saying that terrorism is still present. She noted that 683 terrorist incidents have occurred, resulting in the deaths of 260 security forces personnel and 170 civilians, questioning whether this is the ‘Naya J&K’ that was promised.
The Congress leader also accused the government of designing policies to benefit outsiders. “The mineral blocks and other resources in J&K have been handed over to outsiders,” she said. “The people of J&K are being pushed to the wall while building their houses because the resources available in J&K are being provided to outsiders.”
“There are scams everywhere, and even jobs are being delayed because of them,” she said.
“Congress, if voted to power, will fill one lakh job vacancies and ensure there are no paper leaks, so that jobs are provided to young people without delay.”
Speaking about the drug menace, she said the BJP remains silent on the issue, knowing that unemployment is one of its main causes.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for frequently focusing on her family in his speeches, she said that people need to hear about the benefits the government plans to offer them, rather than personal attacks. “There has been no change in the last ten years, and there is suffocation in J&K,” she said.