Srinagar: National Conference on Monday stated that GOI has failed to address the legitimate aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, saying that words alone won’t suffice to improve the situation on ground.
This was stated by Party’s State women’s wing President Shameema Firdous while presiding over a meeting of women’s wing functionaries here at party headquarters Nawa e Subha, Srinagar. She said New Delhi has failed to live up to the spirit of accommodation and reconciliation towards realization of the legitimate political aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “Today’s meeting is taking place in the backdrop, when democracy in J&K is facing onslaughts from no other than the ruling party itself. Ideally the political and ideological difference should have been put aside while dealing with the sensitive region like that of ours. The major stress of the government should have been to assuage the miseries of our unemployed youth who regrettably have grown up in conflict. The need of the hour called for adoption of a magnanimous approach to give our youth a new hope and rescue them to safe shores, but nothing substantial is being done by the incumbent central and LG government to achieve that end,” she said .
“Compelling narratives of progress, modernity and development justifying its unconstitutional actions in J&k have fallen flat and that the aggressive policies of ruling BJP towards the region have hurt its development path and its economy,” she said adding that ruling BJP was on a mission to disenfranchise Kashmiris with its selective policies and a coterie of federally appointed officers, bereft of democratic bearings, calling the shots. “The so-called Naya Kashmir of BJP, besides being low on democratic mooring is also opposite to the idea of Naya Kashmir propounded by Sher e Kashmir. The downpour of fresh investments, job extravaganza, and infrastructure amplification is nowhere visible on ground. Far from delivering on much touted development promises, the people of Kashmir are continuously being denied their rights, having a popular government in place is one of them,” she added.
“The measures undertaken by GOI on 5th of August unpacked the political gains achieved by various popular state governments. By imposing their agenda on the country’s agenda, they have done much harm to the country than to J&k. Today we see top BJP members make lofty promises on development. How can people trust them given the fact they are the ones who deprived us of our civil liberties? It is needless to say that one year after the abrogation, the picture of the entire region looks grim. The ruling BJP’s record in Kashmir reveals a mounting set of failures on every front ranging from employment generation, investment , infrastructure augmentation. The situation of artisans, hoteliers, marginal traders, and agriculturalists is also very disappointing; the entire lot is at the brink of starvation,” she said.
She said the GOI’s policy towards Jammu and Kashmir must encapsulate all dimensions with peace building efforts at the heart of it. She also said unless a positive environment wasn’t actualized by addressing the political aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir achieving anticipated development goals was unlikely.
