BJP rejects NC’s manifesto as ‘misleading, heap of lies’

Jammu, Aug 19 (PTI) The BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit on Monday rejected the manifesto released by the National Conference for the maiden assembly elections post abrogation of Article 370 as “misleading and heap of lies”.

BJP MP Jugal Kishore Sharma and BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi claimed that the manifesto of the National Conference compiled only to mislead the voters of the Union Territory.

Restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000 are among the National Conference’s 12 guarantees announced in its manifesto for the upcoming polls.

In June 2000, the National Conference government under Farooq Abdullah passed a resolution in the Assembly seeking to restore the pre-1953 constitutional position in the state. It was, however, rejected by the Union Cabinet headed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, in 2019 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The National Conference (NC) manifesto for the upcoming assembly polls also promised to seek amnesty for all political prisoners and dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley.

Sharma, who is also the chairman of the state election campaign committee for the assembly polls, and Sethi said the promises made by the National Conference like repeal of the Public Safety Act, stoppage of frisking on highways and mass amnesty to the prisoners reflects their “anti-people, anti-nationalist mindset and vicious agenda”.

They said the promises are just a “hoax that has been compiled without any thought on their practical socio-economic implications”, adding “this is a manifesto with no vision”.

Without elaborating, the BJP leaders said some of the points in the manifesto challenges the “law of the land” and asked if the NC leaders are considering themselves above the “Constitution, Law and the Supreme Court”.