The state BJP president said he was confident that BJP in its last six years of rule has never let down the interests of Punjabis. (Twitter@AshwaniSBJP)

STATE BJP president Ashwani Sharma has made a demand to Home Minister Amit Shah that the Punjabi language should be given due recognition in J&K.

“The central government in the monsoon session is going to pass a ‘J&K Official Language Bill 2020’ in which Urdu, Hindi, English, Dogri and Kashmiri will be given the status and recognition of official languages. However, I have written to the honourable Home Minister that Punjabi be incorporated in this list too,” said Sharma.

He further said that over 70 per cent of the population in J&K understood or spoke Punjabi. “Since Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s time J&K were an important part of the Sikh empire and the dogri is an offshoot of Punjabi,” he said.

The state BJP president said he was confident that BJP in its last six years of rule has never let down the interests of Punjabis. “Be it bringing the guilty of riots which marred our history of coexistence or taking the historical decision of opening upthe Kartarpur Sahib Corridor and celebrating 350 years of Parkash Purb of Guru Gobind Singh,” he said.

Lauding the “efforts of BJP in giving directions to consulates all over the world for issuing passports to Indian citizens”, Sharma said “lakhs of Punjabis living abroad without a passport were given this help”.

“The black list was also done away with as the Modi government believes in compassion and reconciliatory politics. I also hail the decision of the central government to give permission to send money according to Sikh practise of ‘duswand’ to Harminder Sahib,” Sharma said.