Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, June 23 :-
Former Minister and senior Congress leader, Raman Bhalla here on Saturday assailed PDP-BJP dispensation for leaving people in the lurch midway after promising them stars and sky resulting in political inconsistency, deceit and betrayal to the people, saying their wrong policies have brought Jammu and Kashmir at the cross roads of the history. The PDP-BJP alliance government in Kashmir has fallen after just three years of being in power. That the BJP has pulled out is nothing but an admission of failure on their part and on the part of the government of India. It is an admission of the fact that theirs was an unlikely combination from the very beginning. They were simply pulling along without even a semblance of governance being offered to people of state. There is relief among the people that this alliance is over. There was massive opposition to the way the state was being run. The State is in total chaos and the people of all the three regions are suffering”, Bhalla said while addressing workers meeting at Karan Bagh Gadigarh in Gandhi Nagar constituency this afternoon.Prominent among those present on the occasion include Gurbachan Singh, Amrik Singh N. Sarpanch, Kuldeep Singh,Iqbal Singh, Harbans Singh, Lambardar Janak Singh Ikjyot Singh Davinder Singh Pappu, Narinder Singh Panch Harbans Kour and others.He said the opportunist and power hungry coalition had no will to govern and lack of political direction plunged the State into administrative inertia and developmental paralysis. The deplorable condition of utility services had hugely impacted the people, especially in the Jammu region which was reeling under perpetual power shedding and water scarcity during the current scorching Summer. While development had come to a grinding halt, the people had been forced to run helter skelter for minimum basics, Bhalla added.
Bhalla pointed out that in the last four years, 373 security personnel and 239 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir due to heightened militancy. He said that the Modi government had claimed that demonetisation in 2016 had broken the back of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir but that did not seem true. “Didn’t BJP tell us that demonetisation had broken the back of terrorism in Kashmir? Then what happened?” he asked.The people of Jammu voted for it under the misguided notion that it would give Jammu the status it deserved in the polity, end discrimination with it, redress the grievances of refugees of all varieties and work religiously for the complete integration of the state into India. But nothing of this sort happened. Instead, it betrayed Jammu again, again and yet again in a most brazen manner. While attacking the NDA government at the centre, Bhalla said that since the change of guard happened in New Delhi, the prices of essential commodities have increased manifold.”The prices of pulses have increased and it has become difficult for not only the poor but also the middle class to afford pulses.
The ever increasing inflation is taking a toll on the common masses of this country,” he said. He further said that the NDA government headed by the BJP was shamelessly taking credit for projects which were started during the UPA regime.Bhalla said that the people of Jammu feeling let down and betrayed, as their problems are accumulating with each passing day. He said the arrogance of power and lack of governance distanced the BJP from its core agenda, people of Jammu hugely realizing the mistake of putting them into the cradle of administrators. “For over six decades, the BJP had been exploiting the Jammu sentiment by crying hoarse over the so-called discrimination, deprivation and neglect but when it came to delivering, they just raised their hands”, he said, adding that not only the BJP pushed the region to backwards but also turned out as a big obstacle in its development and progress. He referred to protests and strikes of daily rated workers on regular basis and said that while a huge chunk of these people are taking to streets, the general public is suffering on account of utility services. Same is the situation with other segments of employees like teachers and Anganwari workers, who find themselves at the receiving end of BJP’s sadistic behavior, he added.
Coming down heavily on the BJP for betraying peoples’ mandate and virtually leaving them in lurch, Bhalla said the slogans of change and “Ache Din” have proven hoax and the coalition partners have reneged on every single statement and promise they made during elections. He said duplicity and insincerity of the allies brought the State to morass with people feeling insecure and economically deprived.He said the governance was at the lowest ebb and developmental activities stopped at the stages where Congress led Government had left these. In fact, he said the present dispensation not only abandoned the schemes initiated by the previous Government but also failed to take up new projects as per needs of the people.Blaming the PDP-BJP for plunging Jammu and Kashmir into unprecedented political uncertainty, Bhalla expressed concern over their concerted attempts to polarize the situation in order to hide their failures on governance front.
He highlighted sector-wise deficiencies accrued and accumulated during the past over three years and said the semblance of the Government was not seen anywhere on ground. BJP surrendered to its coalition partner and had no courage to raise voice in the government for the vital issues.
The BJP leaders who considered them to be champions of Jammu miserably failed in raking up the issues of Jammu during their highly unpopular Govt of three years in state.
