Anantnag: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday announced five guarantees for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, including Rs five lakh interest-free loan for women entrepreneurs and Rs 25 lakh health insurance per family, if the Congress-NC alliance is voted to power in the Union territory.
Campaigning for the alliance candidates in this south Kashmir town, Kharge also said the Congress-NC government will give Rs 3,000 monthly to the women heads of families besides promising to restore the provision to give 11 kg grains per person through the public distribution system.
He said the promise for rehabilitation of Kashmir Pandit migrants, which was made during the term of Manmohan Singh, will be fulfilled.
The OBCs will also get their rights as enshrined in the Constitution, he added.
The five guarantees were read out by the Congress president in presence of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and other senior Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal and Subodh Kant.
Kharge said there were one lakh jobs vacancies in Jammu and Kashmir but the current dispensation appointed by the BJP-led Centre is not filling them as “they want to keep people of Jammu and Kashmir poor”.
“We will fill these vacancies. They did not bring any industry, hence no job creation. We will focus on tourism and manufacturing. More than 4,400 government schools have been closed in the past several years. We will reopen them as we will focus on education,” the Congress president said.
BJP has not brought any manufacturing or factory jobs to the region, Kharge said, adding “I want to point out that infrastructure development has stopped here. One lakh posts are empty here. If we come to power, we will fill those empty posts. The youths will get those jobs. These people (BJP) want to keep you poor. These people want to keep the people of Jammu and Kashmir poor, they can’t even give the government job posts which are vacant right now, and they didn’t even bring any big factories here. They didn’t bring any manufacturing too,” Kharge said in the public meeting.
“This is why we need to bring Congress and NC to power here. If we come to power, then tourism, manufacturing, and internship sectors would be in our focus,” he added.
He also promised that the party would start the schools which had been previously shut down. “All 4,400 government schools which had been closed, we would start them again and educate the children. If we provide the education, only then would the youth progress,” the Congress president said.
Kharge reiterated that the party will strive for restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir while promising to restore a bi-cameral legislature in the Union territory.
“We will strive to get statehood for J&K. The bi-cameral House will be restored. They (BJP) keep asking how we will do it? When people are with us, we will do it as it is people’s power,” he added.
Kharge also appealed to the party supporters to fight together and not blame each other. “They (BJP) used to say ‘400 paar, 400 paar’, and they stopped at 240 this time. If we had 20 more seats, then all these people would have been in jail, and they deserve to be there.
“So I appeal to everyone to not get angry, but instead fight. Your captain is strong, unafraid, everyone here is unafraid. The leaders are here to help solve problems in Jammu and Kashmir. We need to win, we need to fight together, but while fighting, we should not blame each other.”
After the public meeting, Kharge again pointed out the 1 lakh job vacancies in the region and appealed to the people to not trust BJP, and instead strengthen the Congress-NC alliance by giving them their votes.
Polling for Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to be held in three phases: September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes is scheduled on October 8. (With inputs from PTI)
BJP should stop making efforts to break alliances: Kharge
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said the BJP should stop making efforts to break alliances and political parties opposed to it as they have a minority government at the Centre which depends on TDP and JD-U for survival.
“The Congress and National Conference are contesting the (Jammu and Kashmir) elections together, which has made the BJP nervous. Now they are trying to break the alliance,” Kharge told reporters here.
They (BJP) are even fielding private players and supporting them indirectly as independents in an attempt to defeat Congress-NC candidates, he said and indicated that these independents are getting the money from the BJP.
“Now stop doing it, BJP. Your government is not 400+, it is 200+. It is a minority government. (Chandrababu) Naidu (TDP) can pull your feet anytime; Nitish Kumar (JD-U) can pull out anytime. You have given one hand to someone and one foot to someone else…you should tread carefully,” Kharge said.
The Congress president appealed to people of Jammu and Kashmir to elect a strong government with landslide majority that will solve their problems.
“If you elect a government on the balance (with a thin majority), the BJP will bring down the government overnight through horse-trading. It happened in my state, Karnataka. They bought 16 persons (MLAs). In Maharashtra, they split Shiv Sena and NCP to form the government. This (BJP government) is a ‘tod phod sarkar’,” he added.
Kharge launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, alleging that the prime minister and Home Minister Amit Shah were making false promises.
“They have promised to give five lakh jobs. There are one lakh vacancies in the government in Jammu and Kashmir. Why were these not filled?” he asked.
The Congress chief claimed while unemployment and prices were on the rise, the BJP was giving away resources including minerals to its chosen people which have made local people poorer.
“People eat dal, sabzi, etc but the BJP here is eating sand. They bring their people from outside to give them benefits here,” he added.
Kharge also hit out at PM Modi for, what he termed, misuse of foreign visits to malign the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi.
“There is not a single country where he has not set his foot. Met the Pakistan PM, got on a swing with the Chinese President, met the Singapore PM as if they were family friends. Modi said Obama is a friend but campaigned for Trump when he said ‘Ab ki baar Trump sarkaar’. Where in the world have we seen outsiders come and campaign?
“Modi talks against India across the world with just one aim to demean Congress and image of Rahul Gandhi. In 60 years of Congress rule, we have never named and shamed India anywhere,” he added.
Earlier during an election rally in Anantnag, the Congress president said if the INDIA bloc had won 20 seats more in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP top brass would have been in jail by now.
“They use CBI, ED, etc to scare our workers so that they stay home. Still the alliance people are not scared because it is a minority government. It has a broken leg which is running on the support of TDP and Nitish Kumar.
“Had we won 20 more seats, they would have been in jail. They deserve to be in jail,” he said.
Kharge stood by his comment when he was asked about it at the presser here.
