Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jammu Kashmir, the Congress on Thursday demanded a timeline for the restoration of full statehood to the Union Territory and the holding of assembly elections there.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh questioned why the BJP was reluctant to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir and why the law and order situation had deteriorated under the prime minister’s leadership.
“As the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri makes his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir since the Lok Sabha elections, six questions he should answer: When will full statehood return to Jammu and Kashmir?” Ramesh asked in a post on X.
He emphasized that since 2018, the people of J&K have had no way to express their grievances, describing the region as a “bureaucratic fiefdom controlled by the BJP-RSS cabal.”
“While claiming to have ended special status for J&K, the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri has in fact created an extra-special situation of a new and unique political system: one where the state has been downgraded to a UT, elections have been suspended, and all norms of constitutional morality violated,” Ramesh asserted.
The Congress leader recalled that in his Parliament speech on December 11, 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah said full statehood to J&K would be restored at an “appropriate time.” However, five years after losing their statehood, the people of J&K still lack clarity on when this will happen.
“Can the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri give a straight answer to this key question: when will full statehood return to Jammu and Kashmir?” he asked.
Ramesh pointed out that the last Vidhan Sabha elections were held in 2014 and that four seats in the Rajya Sabha remain vacant due to the delay in holding assembly polls.
“The blame for this suspension of democracy lies entirely with the Centre. As the Chief Election Commissioner clarified in March 2024, the Pradhan Mantri’s Government failed to reconcile its own J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, with its own Delimitation Exercise, 2022 – preventing the ECI from initiating the electoral process.
“This weaponized incompetence appears to be deliberate: unable to win power through legitimate electoral means, the BJP has used this opportunity to control the levers of power for selfish gains,” he alleged.
Ramesh said it was only the Supreme Court-imposed deadline of September 2024 that forced the Centre to conduct the polls now.
“Can the ‘one-third’ PM explain this long delay in holding the elections? Why has he clung so desperately to power in a state where the people never chose to be led by him?” Ramesh asked.
Questioning why the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir had deteriorated, he said, “The one-third Pradhan Mantri claims to have curbed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir at all his public meetings. The mood on the ground in J&K, however, is one of anxiety.
“Since January 1, 2023, 35 of our brave security personnel and eight innocent civilians have lost their lives in the Pir Panjal Range (comprising the Rajouri-Poonch area) alone, in an area where there were no major incidents of terrorism between 2007 and 2014,” he said.
The Congress Rajya Sabha MP claimed that infiltration from Pakistan is rising along the international border, and a palpable sense of insecurity prevails across J&K. He criticized the Prime Minister for being silent amidst this surge in terrorism, despite receiving congratulatory messages from the Pakistani Prime Minister. “Why has his Government failed to salvage the security situation in J&K? What is his vision to restore normalcy?” Ramesh questioned.
Criticizing the government’s treatment of the Kashmiri Pandits, Ramesh alleged that the BJP had “exploited” their misery in every election campaign.
“However, ten years after coming to power, the Pradhan Mantri and the Home Minister have done absolutely nothing for the community and have not even held a meeting with the community’s representatives… Does the Pradhan Mantri view the community only as a talking point? Why has he neglected their interests over the last decade?” he asked.
Ramesh also questioned why, if the Union Government’s actions were popular, the BJP and its proxies keep getting rejected by the people of J&K. He inquired about the investments Jammu and Kashmir have actually received since 2019.
“When the BJP abrogated Article 370 to much fanfare in 2019, they repeatedly argued that the actions were popular among the people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Pradhan Mantri refused to visit J&K after 2019 until the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
“The BJP refused to contest the Lok Sabha elections in the Kashmir Valley, instead implicitly supporting candidates put up by its proxies. However, all three proxies fared poorly, scoring a zero in the Lok Sabha and securing a lead only in one Vidhan Sabha segment. If the Union Government’s actions are popular, why do the BJP and its proxies keep getting rejected by the people of J&K?” he asked.
On investments, he inquired about the number of jobs created by the Modi government, both in the public and private sectors.
“How many investors from the rest of India have actually invested in J&K since 2019? How many PSUs has the Union Government set up in J&K? Can the Prime Minister inaugurate a single facility that his Government has built in J&K?” he wrote.
The Prime Minister reached Jammu Kashmir on Thursday evening and will participate in the International Yoga Day celebrations on Friday morning. PTI