BJP’s policy on J&K, Ladakh neither respects ‘Kashmiriyat’ nor upholds Jamhuriyat’: Kharge

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded that elections in Jammu and Kashmir must be held according to the Supreme Court-set deadline, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge alleging that the BJP’s policy on J-K and Ladakh neither respects ‘Kashmiriyat’ nor upholds ‘Jamhuriyat’.

Kharge’s remarks come on the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J-K and Ladakh.

“BJP’s policy on Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh neither respects ‘Kashmiriyat’ nor upholds ‘Jamhuriyat (democracy)’,” Kharge said in a post on X.

“The Modi government had claimed that this move would help to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir, boost economic development of the region and prevent terrorism and separatism. However, the reality is starkly different,” he said.

Since 2019, there have been 683 fatal terror attacks, resulting in the martyrdom of 258 security personnel and the loss of 170 civilian lives, the Congress chief said.

Notably, 25 terror attacks have occurred in the Jammu region since PM Narendra Modi’s third oath, claiming the lives of 15 soldiers and injuring 27, he said.

Kharge also claimed that targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits have become a norm in the past few years.

A staggering 65 per cent of government department posts in Jammu and Kashmir remain vacant since 2019, he said.

The unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 10 per cent, with an alarming 18.3 per cent youth unemployment rate, he said.

Despite the introduction of the New Industrial Policy in 2021, a mere 3 per cent of investments have materialised on the ground, Kharge said.

He further claimed that 40 per cent of projects under the PM’s Development Package, 2015, remain pending.

“Jammu and Kashmir’s net state domestic product (NSDP) growth rate has declined from 13.28% (April 2015-March 2019) to 8.73% post-2019,” he said.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh yearn for normalcy, a sentiment they conveyed to Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Kharge said.

“We demand that elections are held according to the Supreme Court set deadline so that people can elect their own representatives, secure Constitutional rights and put a full stop to this mechanism of being ‘ruled by bureaucracy’,” Kharge asserted.

The Indian National Congress stands firmly with the people of these regions, which are an integral part of India, he added.

Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state divided into two Union Territories in 2019.

Last December, the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30.