कांग्रेस ने अमित शाह निशाना साधा, कहा जम्मू-कश्मीर को कब मिलेंगे पूर्ण राज्य का दर्जा

The Congress on Friday targeted Home Minister Amit Shah over the government's policy on Jammu and Kashmir, asking "when will full statehood be restored and why the security situation there has deteriorated under you". Congress general secretary and communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh also asked why the Centre was trying to "infringe" on the powers of the political executive of Jammu and Kashmir and why the economic situation in the Union Territory has deteriorated since 2019. "The self-proclaimed Chanakya is in Jammu and Kashmir today. The administration of Jammu and Kashmir has been primarily in the hands of the Home Ministry since the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018," he said in a statement.

He said the self-proclaimed Chanakya should answer four questions about his governance. Ramesh alleged that since 2018, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have not been given any opportunity to express grievances and the region has become a fiefdom of the bureaucracy controlled by the BJP-RSS faction. "While claiming to have ended the special status for Jammu and Kashmir, the government has in fact created an extra-special situation of a new and unique political arrangement: one in which the state has been converted into a Union Territory, elections have been postponed and all norms of constitutional morality have been violated," he alleged. In his speech in Parliament on December 11, 2023, Shah said that full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would be restored at an "appropriate time", Ramesh pointed out. "Five years after the stripping of statehood, the people of Jammu and Kashmir still do not have clarity on what the timeline is for the return of statehood.

Based on the experience of the last five years, where assembly elections were delayed on one pretext or the other, the people of Jammu and Kashmir do not accept the Centre's assurance of restoring statehood, he said. Ramesh asked if the home minister could give a straight answer to the key question as to when full statehood would be restored. He further said that one of the most repeated sayings of the "non-organic Prime Minister, self-styled Chanakya and his ministers" was that the repeal of Article 370 had curbed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the atmosphere on the ground is of concern. At least 51 security personnel have been killed in 2021 south of Pir Panjal, an area where there were no major incidents of terrorism between 2007 and 2014, he said. In the last few weeks, it has also spread to neighbouring districts, which we considered largely peaceful: as evidenced by the attacks in Reasi on June 9, Kathua on June 10 and Doda on June 11, Ramesh said.

The Congress leader claimed that infiltration from Pakistan is on the rise and a sense of insecurity prevails throughout Jammu and Kashmir. Even amid this surge in terrorism, the Home Minister is conspicuously silent. Why has his government failed to save the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir? What is his role in restoring normalcy? Is there a vision? Why is the central government constantly lying to the country about the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir?” Ramesh asked. He also questioned why the Centre was attempting to infringe upon the powers of the political executive of Jammu and Kashmir. “In July 2024, the Home Ministry amended the rules under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, giving the power to take decisions on crucial matters such as appointment of police and All India Services officers and to grant sanction for prosecution in various cases solely to the Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Central Government,” he said.

By curtailing the policing and administrative powers of the political executive of Jammu and Kashmir, the Home Ministry has seriously compromised the functioning of the future government, he said. Ramesh also asked why the Centre was compromising the powers of the future state government if it was sincere in granting full statehood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “Why has the economic condition of Jammu and Kashmir deteriorated since 2019? When the BJP repealed Article 370 with much fanfare in 2019, they repeatedly argued that the law was an obstacle to 'development and progress'. In the three years since the announcement of the new industrial policy in January 2021, the Union Territory has received proposals worth Rs 84,544 crore in 42 industrial areas, he said. Only 414 units have been registered till date and the actual investment on land is just Rs 2,518 crore, he said. Ramesh said the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy had painted a grim economic picture in April last year, saying Jammu and Kashmir had the highest unemployment rate in India at 23.1 per cent. He alleged that part of the situation is administrative inefficiency - the recruitment process for government jobs was delayed for four years due to exam paper leaks and allegations of bribery. More than 60,000 government daily wage workers in Jammu and Kashmir work at Rs 300 per day.