“With rest of the states of the country facing turmoil and disturbances in the aftermath of CAA and NPR row, the Union Ministers appear to have chosen the peaceful and calm environs of J&K for a pleasant break. These Central Ministers are on a sabbatical in J&K on govt expense far away from the heat generated by the protestors across the nation over citizenship laws and other issues. The places of visit have been randomly selected by the said Ministers in consultation with their local party colleagues ensuring that troublesome areas are omitted from their itinerary and disgruntled people are avoided”. This was stated by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister while addressing a public rally in Ramnagar today. Pertinent to mention here that the gathering of Panthers party was two times as much as the gathering of the visiting Union MoS of the BJP.
Pointing towards the media reports from New Delhi that the Union Ministers were visiting J&K to aware the people about benefits of abrogation of Art 370 and withdrawal of special status, Mr. Singh said that such awareness was more required in Kashmir region than Jammu. Interestingly however, said Singh, the Central Ministers had shown their disinclination towards Kashmir as only five out of around 40 Ministers were reported to have planned visits to valley. “Even in Jammu region, the said Ministers were indulging in inaugurations of some petty development works with their speeches full of tired shibboleths. It was not under-stable as to how the same could help them achieve their objective of educating people. It was further not clarified as to what prompted them to visit J&K with the aforesaid motive five and half months after the scrapping of Art 370 and downgrading of the state into UTs”, asserted Singh.
Taking a pot-shot at the Ministers for making announcement of some development schemes, Mr. Singh said that majority of them were already ongoing projects. And several other announcements were only a repetition of the promises made earlier, said Singh. He observed that even new announcements, if any, and howsoever false, ought to have been preceded by lifting of restrictions and resumption of normalcy in J&K needed ought to have been the priority of central leadership.
Asserting that Ministers’ sojourn to J&K under the name and style of “Public outreach programme” was only an eyewash, Mr. Singh said that it had nothing to do with the aspirations of the people. The people were being hardly taken on board during the said programmes. It was a one way communication from the Ministers who believed in monologues only. The people in general were not allowed to ventilate their feelings or to project their grievances during the programmes of Ministers. And such being the nature of the so called of Public outreach programmes, they had evoked more of cynicism then appreciation. These sojourns to J&K had in essence proved as pleasure trips of Central Ministers who had opted for a peaceful J&K as against the all other disturbed states of the country bearing the brunt of opposition’s onslaughts and protests over multifarious issues”, maintained Singh.