The newly appointed president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, (JKPCC), Tariq Hamid Karra, on Tuesday, questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over unrelenting spike in terror attacks across Jammu region, spiraling unemployment and under-development in the region.
The newly appointed president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, (JKPCC), Tariq Hamid Karra, on Tuesday, questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over unrelenting spike in terror attacks across Jammu region, spiraling unemployment and under-development in the region.
Talking to media persons after he was accorded a rousing reception by the party leaders on being appointed as new chief of the JKPCC, 69-year-old Karra minced no words and mocked the saffron party for its tall but “hollow” promises.
“As far as Jammu and its people are concerned, I would like to remind them that there was a time when the BJP exploited them politically and religiously through emotional slogans and got votes from them,” he said.
“They (BJP) promised them rivers of milk and honey, no militancy and all-round development. It’s now 10 years and they have formed government at the Centre for third tenure, but the Jammu people haven’t yet come across rivers of milk and honey,” he said.
“Militancy has peaked in Jammu. Now, every day there is a terror attack. The region has become the hub of terrorism. Can BJP explain why this militancy has not ended? What is going on and who is responsible for it?” he added.
Karra claimed that the BJP-led Centre has failed on all fronts and is now trying to find excuses. “Development, I must say, has taken place from airport to Raj Bhawan… the road is very good but go to the remote, hilly and rural areas of Pir Panjal and Chenab Valley where road accidents take place daily. Can’t these areas be part of development,” he asked.
He also highlighted the plight of unemployed youth.
Karra is a veteran leader, who belongs to a prominent political family from Srinagar. A strong critic of the People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, he had joined Congress in 2017 after quitting the Mehbooba Multi-led party.
Earlier, he expressed his gratitude to party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi for reposing their faith and appointing him president of the JKPCC at a crucial stage when the region is going to assembly elections in more than six years.
