Congress concerned over security situation, seeks timely elections: JKPCC Chief

Bhalla, Lal Singh and other top leaders attended the one-day convention

Jammu, June 15: Congress today expressed serious concern over the  deteriorating security situation and asked the Govt. to take concrete action against terrorism to create conducive atmosphere for timely Assembly elections in J&K as per  Supreme Court directions.

One day political convention of prominent leaders and workers of Jammu region discussed the prevailing security scenario and political situation including road map ahead. The convention was presided over  by  President JKPCC Shri Vikar Rasool Wani,  and attended by Working President Shri Raman Bhalla & Ch. Lal Singh (Ex- M.P) Senior Vice Presidents  Shri Mula Ram & Shri Ravinder Sharma (Chief Spokesperson), besides Vice Presidents , General Secretaries, Dist. Presidents, Frontal Heads and leaders of Dist. Congress Committees and Block Presidents.

The convention passed a resolution appealing Shri Rahul Gandhi to be the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha which is the need of the hour and the demand of general workers and the people of this country who desire a strong opposition to raise the issues faced by the common people of this country.

The convention also congratulated Smt. Sonia Gandhi on being elected Chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party, lauding her leadership and dedication towards the party throughout her political career.

Hitting out at the Centre and UT administration for failure to control terrorism JKPCC Chief Shri Vikar Rasool Wani expressed grave concern over the sudden  spurt in terror activities engulfing the entire Jammu province, during the past one week and blamed modi govt of playimg politics by misleading the entire nation regarding the ground situation falsely claiming total normalcy. He asked the Govt. to ensure an atmosphere of safety and security and create conducive situations for holding assembly elections as per schedule fixed by Supreme Court.

Referring to just concluded  Lok Sabha elections in the UT , he said that the INDIA alliance  and congress party performed very well and appreciated the efforts  and dedication of the party workers  who reduced the margin of  BJP in Jammu drastically despite heavy odds which indicates the desire for change in Jammu and asked the party workers to intensify their struggle  for the Assembly elections which should be held in due time  also  keeping in mind the voting right of  the nomadic tribal community .

Vikar  asserted that congress will gain majority seats and will form the next Govt. in Jammu and Kashmir with like minded secular parties . He also appreciated the congress candidates for their  best fight and thanked the people for their overwhelming support.  He said that he took over the party in   a very difficult situation when several top leaders left the  party but today party has emerged stronger and would be further strengthened at the grass root level. He asked all senior leaders to undertake tour of different areas and reach out to the people.

Working President Shri Raman Bhalla expressed gratitude to the workers and the people for their whole hearted  support and said that party has emerged much stronger in Jammu, Samba, Reasi Districts as compare to last elections and the Assembly elections would turn the   situation in favour of the congress party.

He said  our leaders   and workers  should continue to be amongst the masses in view of the coming assembly elections and strengthen te party to defeat BJP which has ruined Jammu and Kashmir an d destroyed jobs and business.

Ch. Lal Singh in  his address  expressed gratitude to the party leadership for  his rejoining and granting him party mandate. He has special appreciation for the leadership of Gandhi family for their truthfulness and affection for party workers. He thanked the party workers and the people for their mass support to him  and assured them that he will stand by them and the party through thick and thin. He appeale4d to the party leaders and workers  to unitedly and dedicatedly work for three months as people want congress government in J&K .

The resolution was presented by Senior Vice President Incharge Media Shri Ravinder Sharma containing the current  scenario  and the political situation aftermath of general elections and the road map for the party for the upcoming assembly elections. Several prominent leaders spoke in favour of the resolution which was adopted after some additions. Prominent those seconded and spoke include Shri Mula Ram, Neeraj Kundan, Naresh Gupta, Yash Pal Kundal, Vinod Shrama, Smt. Indu Pawar, Hari Singh Chib, Rajnish Sharma, Sain Abdul Rashid, Ashok Dogra, Narinder Gupta, Shashi Sharma,  Pawan Raina, Sham Lal Bhagat, T.S. Tony,  Pyare Lal Shan, Parveen Sarwar Khan, Th. Manmohan Singh, Shabir Ahmed Khan, Pankaj Dogra, Sheikh Mujeeb, Asif Naqeeb, Vinod Khajuria, Bhupinder Singh Jamwal, Sanjeev Sharma, Satish Sharma, Sumit Magotra,  Vijay Sharma, Ajay Lakhotra  besides prominent  leaders like T.S. Bajwa (Ex-MP), Ved Mahajan , Krishan Chander Bhagat, Durga Dass all ex-legislators, Shah Mohd Choudhary, Amrit Bali, Narinder Sharma, Suresh Dogra, Shakeel Shah,  Rajesh Sadotra, Balbir Singh, Satish Sharma, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shakeel Mir, Sheikh Riaz Ahmed,Abid Aijaz, Shamsher Singh Chib, Parvez Ahmed Wani, Babal Gupta,  Kuldeep Raj Verma, Rajvir Singh, Manjet Singh Jatt, Dwarka Choudhary,  Sahil Sharma, Mohib Ahmed Khan, Sheikh Irshad Ahmed, Pawan Bhagat, Vijay Shastri, Michael Wazir,Firdos Mignoo, Jatin Raina , Kapil Chib, Sujad Tariq,  Jagdeep Singh, Parveen Singh, Campres David Babloo,  Bhavishya Sudan, Ricky Dalotra and others.

Earlier in the beginning two  minutes silence was observed to  mourn the  killings of bus yatries and other security personnel and civilians  in  the recent days and to pray for early recovery of the injured.

The following political resolution  was passed in the convention.

Security Scenario

Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee  expresses its grave concern over the sudden  spurt in terror activities engulfing the entire Jammu province, during the past one week. We strongly condemn the cowardly and gruesome attack targetting innocent pilgrims in Reasi district near the Kalakote-Sunderbani  area of Rajouri district on the main highway road of Shiv Khori-Vaishno Devi, in which 10 innocents lost lives and 33 injured. This followed another attack in Hiranagar in Kathua  district and Chhattergalla  in Doda Dist, targetting civilians and security men. At the same time, the presence of terrorists is being noticed at various places in other parts of Jammu province, even in the heart of Jammu city.  Prior to this an attack took place at Basant Gareh in Udhampur Dist. Besides several search operations have been launched following reports of militants presence in  different parts of  Jammu region. There is an atmosphere of fear and anger amongst the people over the series of these attacks and the active presence of such a magnitude of terrorists, even in areas which were incident free for over two decades while government  had claimed that Jammu region is free from militants besides making hollow claims of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. The ruling party played politics and claimed normalcy and elimination of militancy , due to its policy on Kashmir, during entire election process in the country. These attacks  and rapid rise in terror activities have exposed  the false  claims of BJP Govt. and brought out the actual ground situation, before the entire nation, for which the government is answerable to the nation.

We strongly condemn the terror attacks and  ask the centre Govt. to tell Pakistan in strongest terms to stop sponsoring terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir besides taking concrete action to eliminate terrorism.                                                                                 

We sympathies with the victims of terror attacks  and share their pain and sufferings and those of their families. We demands that  the Govt of India  should give adequate exgratia to the martyrs and those injured in such attacks.  We extend full support and express solidarity with our forces and JK police, facing a tough situation and fighting militancy very bravely at the cost of their own  lives.

The Prime Minister Modi should recall own questions to then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh ji, that when entire BSF and Army is at his command, wherefrom these terrorists come. Now After ten years, the nation has right to ask the same questions to the PM Narinder Modi ji, besides  seeking explanation for making false claims of normalcy especially during the elections, when the people of J&K are facing threat to their lives.

JKPCC stands together with the Govt. and our brave forces for dealing with current situation and seeks restoration of an atmosphere of safety & security. We strongly urge the Centre Govt. and UT administration to ensure incident-free Shri Amarnath Yatra at all costs.

Political scenario  & Road map ahead

This one day convention discuss the just concluded Lok Sabha elections in the country and it expresses gratitude to the people, for their whole hearted support to the congress party and INDIA alliance including in Jammu and Kashmir and in the entire country as a result INC and INDIA alliance has performed remarkably well and BJP failed to get even simple majority of 272 against tall claims of over 370 seats  for BJP and 400 paar for NDA.

The party particularly the leadership of Congress and INDIA alliance for the grand success especially when Modi Govt. had let loose all sorts of unlawful authoritarian actions against the top opposition leadership and had freezed congress accounts during elections.

We laud the leadership of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Shri Rahul Gandhi  and Smt.  Priyanka Gandhi for fighting out this battle against all odds. We congratulate Shri Rahul Gandhi for transforming the atmosphere of fear and hate in the country by launching and leading yatras – Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, covering more than 10 thousand  Kms  on foot, throughout length and breadth of the country and listening to the voice of each and every one, thus coming out with a very progressive and people friendly manifesto as “ Nyay Patra” attracting youth, women, farmers, labourer and people of each section towards congress , thus  getting confidence of vast majority of people.

The JKPCC appeals Shri Rahul Gandhi to be the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha as it is the desire of each and every worker and general people  to have a strong opposition voice to raise the issues faced by the general public  in the country.

The convention congratulates our leader Smt. Sonia Gandhi on being re-elected as Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party in view of her dynamic leadership and selfless dedication towards the party. Several speakers appreciated the  leadership of JKPCC for the tireless efforts to rejuvenate the party during the tough period to face the elections which increased the margin vote percentage of Congress.

Probably the manifesto – Nyay Patra especially the  guarantee cards  containing 25 guarantees could not reach to every household, otherwise the results would have been further remarkable. This convention appreciates the efforts and struggle of the party cadres, especially our foot soldiers at the grass root levels for reaching out to the people and keeping the party flag high, during all these years and during these elections without even required resources at their command. Workers are the backbone of the party and behind the success of the party.

In both the seats in Jammu, where Congress contested, the party has improved a lot in all segments including getting lead over BJP in few segments and the margin is very narrow despite vicious campaign by the  BJP leadership with all sorts of facilities with the cadres of the  ruling party.

The overall results in the country and in J&K have clearly indicated that people are fed up with the BJP’s policies and programmers  and want to bring  change in the forthcoming assembly elections , which is cause of great encouragement for the party cadres.

Road map ahead

We resolve to continue and further intensify our  activities and  enhance our rapport with the common people and reach out to every household with the policies and programmes of our Party and leadership contained in our manifesto, which will serve us a guiding document for drafting the party’s vision document for Jammu and

Kashmir assembly elections with special focus on the  youth, women, farmers, working class in  Govt. and private sectors and other workers, labourers besides for the downtrodden sections of the society.

The party would seek regularization of all daily wagers, need based workers, besides those working in  temporary, adhoc, consolidated & contractual basis for several years on meagre wages/salaries and ensure justice to them besides taking care of the genuine demands of employees, pensioners, farmers, common people, traders, transporters and all other sections of the society, who are facing multiple taxes in the prevailing unprecedented price hike and record unemployment besides  youth facing job scams and examination mess, like the recent NEET examinations mess  as a result 24 lakh candidates are suffering. Jammu region has become the hub of drugs and transformed into city of liquor shops from city of temples. Our natural resources are being looted and youth exploited by the mafia and outside contractors.

We impress upon the Govt. to create conducive atmosphere for holding the assembly elections as per  directions of the Hon’ble  Supreme Court and urge  upon the ECI to take into considerations the voting rights of nomadic tribal  population while framing the schedule of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress party is fully geared  up for the assembly elections and it is urged upon the ECI & Govt. to ensure level playing field in the matter of security to the party leaders and prominent functionaries of the congress party and other opposition, in the wake of heightened security threat to political workers and others, in the deteriorated  security situation in Jammu region, as well.