The Congress president also used the opportunity to disparage bjpperformance in the polls and reiterated the claim that things would have been different had the opposition Indian bloc secured 20 seats in the Lok Sabha. If their expectations are exceeded, the situation will be different.
“They should be jailed,” the Congress president said at an election rally in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite loud calls for 400, Haq said the PPP could only manage 243, while the opposition managed to get 234. Where is the 400 Pa? You have 240 seats, if we had 20 more seats, all these people would be in jail”.
The Congress president slammed the government for being dependent on alliance partners to stay afloat and said the saffron party was only standing on one foot. “TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu provided a leg; Nitish Kumar JD(U) reached out. They’re riding on that,” he said.
He said: “The BJP is trying to divide Hindus and Muslims by destroying the people here. But their efforts will never succeed. Thousands of BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers will come and go. Here The people will not surrender.
RS Opposition leader further criticized the BJP and said the government has not brought any manufacturing or factory jobs to the region.
“I would like to point out that infrastructure development has stopped. There are 1 lakh jobs lying vacant here. If we come to power, we will fill these vacant positions. Young people will get these jobs. These people (BJP) want to retain You people want to keep the people of Jammu and Kashmir poor, they cannot even give the government jobs that are vacant now, they have not even brought any big factories here.
In view of the polls, Malikajun Haq also unveiled five key assurances if the Congress-National Conference alliance comes to power in Jammu and Kashmir. One of the key commitments includes a $2.5 million health insurance plan for every household in the region. Haq also reiterated Congress’ long-standing commitment to Kashmiri Pandit migration. Besides, he also promised to provide financial benefits of Rs 3,000 per month to women heads of households in Jammu and Kashmir and provide interest-free loans of Rs 5 lakh to women. He also promised that the party would open previously closed schools.
BJP’s response – ‘emergency mentality’
The remarks immediately drew the ire of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which said they reminded the Rashtriya Janata Dal of the authoritarian mentality of the Congress party, adding that they were the ones who declared the Emergency in the mid-1970s.
“This is an example of Congress’s ’emergency’ mentality. He wanted to put opposition leaders in jail, Indira Gandhi put people in jail, and Congress wants to continue that legacy. When the Trinamool Congress was dictatorship in Bengal , they said nothing but called other political parties dictatorships,” said a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party Shehzad Poonawalla Write on X.
The spokesman also said that Haq had earlier said that if the Congress wins in Kashmir, it will impose control over the entire India. “Jammu and Kashmir No matter which one we choose, if we win, the whole of India will be ours. (If we win the Jammu and Kashmir elections, then the entire India will be under our control),” Haq said during an earlier visit to the state.
