Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Apr, 05
Continuing his campaign, former Minister and Congress candidate from Jammu-Poonch Parliamentary seat Raman Bhalla on Friday held series of election meetings in RS Pura, Gandhi Nagar and Akhnoor constituencies. Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla include Ex MP Madan Lal Sharma, Satish Sharna, Laxmi Dutta, Kuldeep Kour, Gurdiyal Singh, Uttam Singh, Rano Devi, Kuldeep Verma, Nek Alam, Dr.Gaffur, Block Presidents, Ward Presidents, Sarpanches, Panches, voters, workers and r supporters in large number.Bhalla claimed on Friday that the people were waiting to teach a lesson to the BJP for allegedly failing to fulfil the promises made before coming to power at the Centre and in J&K.”Before the (2014) polls, the BJP made tall promises. But after coming to power, they failed to fulfill these. Now, the people are waiting for the polls to teach them a lesson,” Bhalla said.Bhalla said that people should elect those who will ensure that their voice is heard in the parliament of India. People of the state want a credible voice to represent their aspirations in the topmost house of the country. Our party is the only credible voice of all the regions of J&K.
It is the Congress that is credited with establishing a welfare state here,” adding, “The people of J&K remembers BJP for unleashing countless miseries on the state and its people. People still recount the numerous instances of BJP and its leaders committed from time to time,” he said.The treacherous role played by the BJP and its leadership is an open secret. Now the responsibility rests on people to choose between forces inimical to state’s integrity and those who have lent immense sacrifices for the protection of the state’s communal harmony and brotherhood.”Now it is up to people to discern between the ones who stand for their rights and who trampled them. However, people have made it a point to show such forces as are inimical to state they’re the right to place. In the end, it is the people whose resolve will prevail,” he said. Every vote matters and every vote should be polled in favour of Congress, for ours is the only party that has never compromised with regard to equitable development of three regions of state.
Bhalla claimed that BJP Govt plunged J&K state into unprecedented crisis and only created chaos and uncertainty. “We, with the support of the people, want to change the present ineffective system”, he said and added that it is aim of the Congress to establish a system where every sections of the society would get equal opportunities of development and upliftment.
He termed Congress as a movement to change destiny of the people. He said that party has emerged as strong and credible voice of the people of Jammu and Kashmir because common masses have faith on this party. “The pro people agenda of the party is formulated by incorporating wishes and aspirations of all sections of the society and we never compromised with our agenda for attaining power.He asked the BJP to account for its sins and failures to the people of Jammu instead of provoking them by raising emotive slogans. This is an obsolete tactic to carve out its lost space, he said adding that the BJP has lost its relevance in Jammu.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla claimed BJP coalition as a “complete failure”, saying the government proven to be a policy and governance “nightmare” for the state. All self-marketed myths of both parties stood exposed as the PDP-BJP coalition government turned out to be a complete failure that stood on an ever-mounting pyre of broken promises and U-turns. From 2005 to 2014, both BJP and PDP propaganda machinery wanted us to believe that they were the only magical solution to all vexed political and economic problems that others had only tried to solve in right earnest.
Today, these myths about them stand shattered, Bhalla added. Not only have they broken every single political promise that they had made to garner votes, but their government also proven to be a policy and governance nightmare for the state. He alleged that BJP used emotive slogans to exploit the sentiments of the people and “ditched them at the first sight of power”. “Their truck with PDP was unarguably the most opportunistic U-turn in the history of J&K and this proved to be the final nemesis of the party,” Bhalla said.
Bhalla said that people who want to contribute to the political discourse and development of the state must become part of the Congress’s growth story.The doors are open for the people who want to contribute in the party’s efforts to see the state out of the present mess,” he said. “Congress is committed for the people’s cause and will always uphold their aspirations and sentiments”, Bhalla said. BJP miserably failed to live up to the expectations of the people. There was a strong resentment among the people against previous government as it has not fulfilled its promises made at the time of Assembly elections. Despite people hitting streets against governance deficit, lack of development and failure of the government to deliver on the promises made to the people of the Jammu and Kashmir, Govt did not move even an inch proving their callousness.
Cautioning people against divisive agenda of BJP, former Minister said that peace and development became biggest causality under their rule. People have realised the futility of giving mandate to BJP in 2014 as not only they remained insensitive towards their problems but also responsible in adding to these on every front”, he said. He said Congress is the only destination for those who want peace to sustain and development to remain focused agenda of the government in the state. He said the initiatives taken in this regard by Congress governments especially the previous one has been negated by the anti-people dispensation.He said the developmental tempo initiated and sustained by Congress government during six years came to a grinding halt and all tall claims and promises delivered before and after formation of the government proved to be hoax. Similarly, the people across the state were facing hardships on account of utility services like power and drinking water, with rations becoming scarce at the sale outlets, especially in remote and far flung areas.
