Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma on Wednesday described the ruling National Conference’s proposed protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over restoration of statehood as an “eyewash”, saying that the Abdullah government was trying to divert people’s attention from its ‘zero-governance’.
“It is an eyewash,” Sharma told reporters here when asked about the National Conference protest.
The NC has announced a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament to remind the Centre of its promise of restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
“People are demanding electricity, but I have not seen any review meetings taking place. There is a lack of clean drinking water, but this government is not making clean and safe drinking water available to the people,” he said.
“There is rampant corruption, and it is impossible to get work done without it. The situation created by these six (council of) ministers is one of corruption only, with no governance. There is zero-governance, zero-performance, on the ground,” he added.
The BJP MP said that, unlike other states, where the chief ministers meet people and conduct public outreach programmes, “the CM (Omar Abdullah) here only meets his own party legislators”.
“He (Abdullah) should meet people, hold a review meeting, interact with officers, take information, and meet the people on the ground. To divert the attention of the people from their lack of performance and worthlessness, they have come up with this Jantar Mantar programme, with which I have a huge problem,” he said.
Earlier, at a press conference marking 12 years of the BJP government at the Centre led by Narendra Modi, Sharma said the prime minister has transformed Jammu and Kashmir and rid it of violence and lawlessness.
“Before 2014, there used to be stone-pelting, and there was an atmosphere of fear. Today, schools and businesses are operating normally without any fear. Out of 365 days, there used to be hartals (strike) on 150-200 days. Today, there is no such thing,” he said.
Referring to separatists, the BJP leader said that some people had “forcibly created an influence” in the name of separatism, calling for strikes, asking youth to pelt stones and take law and order into their hands.
“However, Modi restrained them and brought Kashmir at par with other parts of the country in terms of law and order,” Sharma said.
He asserted that over the past 12 years, the Modi government has improved the situation and atmosphere in the region and added that there is no more fear among the people.
“The law and order problem prevailed in the rule of those who are today just parroting statehood. There was bloodshed and violence. Bullets and grenades used to fly from everywhere. Rahul Gandhi had stated that controlling terrorism was impossible. But see the situation today. The youth are roaming around happily. Now, there is no fear among the people,” Sharma said.
He further said that this was the achievement of 12 years of Modi rule, which brought winds of change in Kashmir, and added that “around 90 percent of transformation has been achieved”, while some work remained.
