Home Ministry report on J&K concocted: PAGD

The PAGD said that the claims made in the recently released report by the Union Home ministry titled “The dream of one nation, one law, one symbol fulfilled: After effective removal of the provisions of Article 370, the picture has changed: a new start in J&K and Ladakh” are far from the reality. The reality is that there is a systematic disempowerment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that is continuing to happen, through bureaucratic rule.

“The slogan of development is a red herring. Why then has the central government done what it has? The common answer is that it has been a long-standing demand of the Hindutva elements, with an eye no doubt on altering the demographic composition of the only Muslim-majority state in the country, rather like Israel is doing on Palestinian lands,” read the statement issued here.

The PAGD alleged that this government being the product of a Hindutva-corporate alliance, almost everything it does also caters to a pro-corporate agenda, apart from promoting Hindutva.

“The presence of Article 370 was not an impediment in the overall development of the State as claimed by the government. All government data and surveys indicate a marked improvement in almost all human development indices in the state (when article 370 was not abrogated),” read the statement.

The PAGD is an amalgam of regional parties formed in October 2020 aimed to fight for the restoration of special status and statehood of J&K. The National Conference Lok Sabha member from Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah heads the amalgam and People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti is its vice president.

The PAGD informed that the projects mentioned in the booklet of the BJP government are mostly approved by the earlier governments but shown to have been the outcome of abrogation of Article 370. “Reality is that Nashri Tunnel, Zojilla Tunnel, establishment of 50 degree colleges and various medical colleges are projects approved much before the abrogation of Article 370,” read the statement.

The Prime Minister’s Development Package of Rs 80,000 crore announced by Narendra Modi in November 2015, the PAGD statement read cannot be counted as the post August 5, 2019 achievement. They also claimed that the J&K has assumed the highest unemployment proportion as compared to the pre-August 2019 period.