Jammu : National Conference Provincial President Mr Devender Singh Rana on Saturday asked the BJP and Congress to clear stand on the state subject laws, saying the two parties cannot play hide and seek or sit on both sides of the fence on this important and sensitive issue.
“BJP and Congress sing different tones at different places on the state subject laws as per their political exigencies and the ambiguity in their stand has been mainly responsible for the unprecedented political uncertainty in Jammu and Kashmir”, Rana said while addressing senior party colleagues of Poonch, Rajouri and Gool Arnas areas of the Jammu Province at S K Bhavan Jammu Saturday afternoon.
The Provincial President blamed the Congress and the BJP for bringing the State to such a passé where confusion and chaos has overtaken the genuine political process and aspirations. The two parties seem to be in league with each other to marginalize the genuine political forces in a bid to weaken the distinct status of Jammu and Kashmir and identity of its people, he said, adding that National Conference will no more allow these machinations to succeed, come what may.
Rana assailed the BJP and the Congress for playing politics over state subject laws with a larger and sinister design and colonial mindset. He said National Conference will fight tooth and nail the sinister designs of the two parties, adding that the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh were sagacious enough to read between the lines. He reiterated that any attempt of diluting or repealing state subject laws will be instrumental in squeezing employment opportunities for enterprising youth by paving way for the youth of the other states to usurp their jobs, making admissions in the professional academic courses fiercely competitive and difficult, depriving them of the concessions in recruitment in the security forces, denying scholarships and other financial assistance to students and other categories of people. More importantly, he said, the business avocations of marginal and medium level traders will be in jeopardy with people from the immediate neighbouring states settling posing huge competition.
Rana said the attempts of tinkering with the state subject law is a matter of grave concern for the people of Jammu in particular, as it is a shield to unique Dogra culture and identity besides their economic interests. “It is also important to uphold this constitutional guarantee to preserve Dogra race, its speech, its history, its legends and its tradition, in the multi religious , multilingual, multi-racial, multi traditional canvas of India”, Rana added.
Rana also asked the two so-called national parties to spell out their stand on fake state subjects, who were posing a grave threat to identity, economy and resources of the Jammu Province. He said the BJP and Congress must explain to the people of Jammu about the fate of fake state subjects, who have exploited and usurped the legitimate rights and avenues of sustenance of self-respecting Dogras and were now conniving with the BJP to dispense with state subject law.
The senior leaders discussed the organizational matters and took several decisions with regard to further intensifying the public outreach of the party at various levels.
