Bharatiya Janata Party, J&K has expressed happiness and complete satisfaction at the Calendar of Holidays 2020 issued by the UT administration emphasising that it is an impartial administrative decision. In a press release issued here today, Brig Anil Gupta, Spokesperson of the Party has thanked the Honourable LG and the UT administration for conceding a long pending demand of the nationalist forces in the UT by declaring a holiday on 26th October celebrated as Accession Day. It further substantiates the fact that the accession of the State to India was full and final and not a subject of dispute as was being propagated by the anti-national forces who used to give call to celebrate it as a Black Day. Even in October last year, in a joint statement signed by several prominent people – including bureaucrats, judges, police officers and civil society had appealed to the then Governor and PM Modi to declare October 26 as a holiday and celebrate it as the official Accession Day. The BJP has been demanding this for decades year after year.
Claiming it to be the historically and politically the most significant day in the history of Jammu & Kashmir as well as free India, Brig Gupta said that the occasion is also the best tribute and recognition of the vision, patriotism and the concern for his subjects of the last ruler of the state Maharaja Hari Singh who was treacherously denied his due by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and subsequently by the NC. Maharaja Hari Singh was not only a benevolent, progressive and reformist ruler but also true secular who always stood by his words: “Justice is my religion,” asserted Brig Gupta and hoped that the holiday on Accession Day will be celebrated all over the state as state level functions with the main State event being organised in the winter/summer capital of the State.
Brig Gupta also ridiculed those opposition parties who have tried to give a communal touch to a purely administrative decision. He cautioned these parties to not to play with fire by emotionally exploiting the people for their narrow political ends. “It is time to shed your narrow minded communal and divisive politics as the people have rejected these time and again in hope for a better and brighter future,” BJP advised the opposition.
While refuting the allegation of Jammu based leadership of NC that the removal of the holiday on Sheikh Abdullah’s birthday is aimed at diminishing the stature and contribution of the Late Sheikh, Brig Gupta stated that there is no logic in their allegation. “Is Sheikh Abdullah’s contribution greater than that of Jawaharlal Nehru? When there is no holiday on his birthday, why should there be a holiday on Sheikh’s birthday? Has Nehru’s contribution to India as its first PM diminished in any manner since there is no holiday on his birthday? Moreover, Sheikh Abdullah is the icon of NC, while there are icons of other parties who have contributed in their own way in ensuring state’s unity and integrity. Then why not a holiday on their birthdays as well? It was a unilateral decision taken by your party and accept its abolition gracefully,” retorted Brig Gupta.
Brig Gupta also welcomed the abolition of 13 July, Martyrs Day as a state holiday since the events of that day remain a bone of contention.