Congress pays tributes to Maharaja Hari Singh

Congress offensive on BJP Govt for statehood, dealing terrorism

Jammu, Oct.  26:  The Congress today launched an all out offensive against BJP and Centre Govt. over the issue of delay in granting statehood and also impressed upon the Centre Govt to take along the newly elected Govt for defeating terrorism.

Paying rich tributes to Maharaja Hari Singh Ji on the  occasion of historical day of accession of J&K with UOI, JKPCC Senior leaders Working President Raman Bhalla, Mula Ram(Ex-Minister, Ravinder Sharma (Chief Spokesperson), Ex-Chairman Legislative Council Jahangir Mir, Ex-Minister Yogesh Sawhney, , Ved Mahajan(Ex-MLC), T.S. Tony, Bhushan Dogra (ExMOS) , Dina Nath Bhagat (Ex-MLA) said that BJP insulted Maharaja and Dogra rulers by downgrading the Dogra the state and reducing it to a UT and not restoring the state after more than 5 years.

Addressing a press conference at PCC HQ today, the  senior leaders questioned BJP and Centre Govt. for the delay in the announcement of statehood despite repeated commitments and advertisements in the media. The real tribute to Maharaja Hari Singh would be to restore full statehood immediately. They said congress would intensify its struggle to seek early restoration of statehood including adopting agitational mode if the demand is not fulfilled at the earliest.

The party also  recalled the sacrifices of all those heroes including Brigadier Rajinder Singh Ji who repulsed  the attack of the Pakistani raiders  till the Indian Army arrived here. All those who laid down their lives  and sacrificed  during the raiders attack and for the accession of J&K with India were also remembered. The role of then leadership of Shri Mahatma Gandhi and Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah in rejecting the two nation  theory of Mr. Jinnah  also needs to be recalled  on this day, they said.

Stating further, Sharma said that Govt.  should deal militancy with a holistic approach and the Centre should take on board the elected Govt. to effectively counter and defeat terrorism. He said that terrorism is a challenge  and the terrorists have  adopted an approach of  selective  targeted attacks in Kashmir Valley and Jammu Region for the past quite some time, which had  escalated  in Jammu Region in the  recent past.

          Condemning strongly the recent attacks the congress leaders said that more effective counter insurgency strategy should be  evolved by the  Centre and UT Govt. to deal with the challenge. The party expressed sympathy with the families of the victims and asked the Govt. to take care of the victim’s families.

The PCC President Shri Tariq Hameed Karra today visited the residence of martyred Shashi Abrol in Jammu today alsong with Mr. Yogesh Sawhney, Th. Manmohan Singh, T.S. Tony, Neeraj Gupta, Sanjeev Sharma and Som Raj to console the family.

Mr. Sharma said that the congress party has been regularly introspecting the visions of the defeat of the party and  getting  feedback from workers and general public in this regard a marathon meeting with  party candidates was held with PCC President Yesterday. Apart from other reasons, the  important aspect of feedback  from the ground is regarding the role of local administration in  its failures to check  the flow of distribution of rations, liquor and use of money by the  rival party during the elections. The huge margin of victory at most of the constituencies where the congress party was winning or in tough contest is against the  inputs from the general public apart from grass root workers and in-depth investigation at party level is going on to identify all such  reasons constituency wise , he added.

The congress leaders also said that the priorities of the party and the coalition Govt.  are statehood, record unemployment and the restoration of Darbar Move besides other welfare measures to give relief to the suffering sections  and the common people who are expecting people friendly initiatives from the elected government after six years of  bureaucratic regime. The Centre Govt. must come forward to fully support the welfare measures and people friendly initiatives  by the newly elected Govt.

 Meanwhile PCC President  has deputed a high level team of the party to visit  Warwan and meet the families affected by the fire incident.