All BJP legislators protesting the state government’s resolution to reinstate special status to Jammu and Kashmir should undergo a “narco test” to see if they too don’t want the same thing, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary said Monday.
Nowshera MLA Choudhary was speaking at Jammu’s Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan after officially assuming office in the UT’s winter capital. This is the first time that the new National Conference government will function out of the Jammu Secretariat since being elected to power last month.
Introduced by Deputy CM Choudhary and passed by the state assembly last week, the resolution to reinstate special status calls for a dialogue between the Centre and elected representatives. The resolution comes five years after the Centre revoked special status of the erstwhile state.
Significantly, the BJP has protested the move saying it had “no legal sanctity” and that it was “illegal and unconstitutional”.
In his speech, Choudhary claimed that “in their hearts” BJP legislators who are protesting the move too want J&K’s special status reinstated “so as to safeguard our jobs and land”.
“They (BJP), too, want it (special status), but they have to organise protests following directions from unknown quarters,” he said. “Through this resolution, we’re reminding the Union home minister Amit Shah of what he had said in Parliament – that the Jammu Kashmir’s land and jobs will not be given to outsiders.”
Further justifying the NC’s resolution, he claimed 11 states in India, including Gujarat, Maharashtra and states in the northeast, have special status.
“Even a small state like Himachal Pradesh has special status,” he said. “So, what’s wrong if we ask for it?”
Choudhary also criticised the BJP for not flagging any “issues of public interest” during the discussion that followed the Governor’s address.
“We expected them that they will ask the government about rising unemployment, frequent scams in recruitment drives by the J&K Service Selection Board in the past, closure of local industrial units following UT government’s new industrial policy encouraging big industrialists from outside, outsiders taking away the contracts for mining of minor minerals, new excise policy whereby all the wine shops have been allotted to outsiders, etc. However, they did not raise any of these issues, but kept on protesting over Article 370,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah received a rousing welcome at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu when he arrived to assume office in the winter capital. This marks Omar’s first official visit to the Jammu Secretariat since taking office as chief minister.
In a gesture of camaraderie, the CM visited the chambers of his ministers to formally welcome them, and also went on a tour of the new under-construction assembly complex.