Will put pressure on BJP to restore statehood in J&K: Rahul Gandhi

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that the Congress would put pressure on the Centre if it failed to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood after completion of the assembly elections.

Addressing a rally for Congress candidate Shah Nawaz Choudhary at Surankote in Poonch district, Rahul said, “There have been instances when Union Territories were made states but never in the history of independent India was a state downgraded into a UT.” In this context, he cited the examples of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

“For the first time, a state was converted into a UT. Your democratic right was snatched from you. Therefore, our first demand will be to make Jammu and Kashmir a state again. We will put pressure on them (BJP) and if they don’t do it then we will do it,” he said.

On August 5, 2019, the BJP-led central government had revoked Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.

The Congress leader also accused the BJP and the RSS of spreading hatred to divide people in the name of religion, caste, creed and region, and claimed the Congress had opened “shops of love in the markets of hate” to counter them.

“They have pitted Paharis against Gujjars and Bakerwals. We have to take everyone along. For us, all are equal,” he said.

In March, the Jammu and Kashmir government had accorded 10% reservation to Paharis and three other tribes, which in turn took the total reservation under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category to 20% and other backward classes (OBCs) to 8%. Besides, 15 new castes were added in the list of OBCs on the recommendation of the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) commission.

He also claimed that the INDIA bloc had “broken the psychology” of Prime Minister Narendra after the Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah said, “This fight is against hatred being spread by the BJP and the RSS. They are trying to create a divide so that they can get power.”