Former Congress leader, who is on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, on Tuesday hit out at the government for its Kashmir doctrine saying he had an old association with the Union Territory.
Gandhi family lives in Delhi, before that in Allahabad and before that in Kashmir. A bit of Kashmiriyat still in his veins, he said.
On his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, Gandhi visited the Kheer Bhawani temple and Dargah Hazratbal shrine in Ganderbal before inaugurating a party office in Srinagar.
Gandhi was accompanied by the party’s general secretary organisation K C Venugopal and AICC incharge Jammu and Kashmir affairs Rajni Patil to the famous Ragnya Devi temple popularly known as Kheer Bhawani, a Congress leader said.
Gandhi also slammed the Centre for not allowing the Congress leaders to speak in Monsoon Session of Parliament. The Congress leaders wanted to raise issues such as Pegasus, unemployment, Kashmir, corruption but weren’t allowed, Gandhi said.
For the first time Gandhi shared the stage with Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the dissident leaders of the G-23 group pack who had demanded to change the leadership.
Azad, who flayed the Centre for the August 5 move, said 16,500 people were jailed; even former chief ministers were not spared. He also reiterated that elections could be held only after the statehood demand was met.
Azad said that the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are smaller than Jammu and Kashmir whose land rights were granted and ensured by Maharaja Hari Singh. Joblessness has peaked and industries have collapsed.
Three days remain for current Parliament session, Centre can make Jammu and Kashmir a state again by passing a bill and it will take five minutes, Azad said.
In August 2019, the Centre had abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the region into two territories- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
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