While saying that the people of Kashmir were “fighting our battle”, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has warned that the people of Jammu will take to arms if Article 35-A is revoked.
Snubbing the party that calls for revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian constitution, BJP MLA from RS Pura, Gagan Bhagat said: “BJP government at the Centre was raking up the issue with an eye on Lok Sabha polls.”
Addressing a public meeting, the video of which has gone viral on social, Bhagat said people of Jammu would be the worst suffers if the Article 35-A was revoked.
“If the Article 35-A is revoked, people of Kashmir won’t suffer as much as Jammuites. There will be no jobs in Jammu. All the people sitting here will be left jobless. Land prices will skyrocket dramatically and you wouldn’t be able to buy land anymore because people living in Gujarat, Haryana are very rich,” he said.
Praising the people for what he said “fighting our battle”, he said that the Valley wouldn’t suffer much as people from outside won’t settle there because of militancy.
“Kashmiris are fighting our battle while the people of Jammu are calling for the abrogation of Article-35A. We all must raise our voice so that it reaches the court,” he said.
Bhagat said that the people of Jammu would take up arms and “pelt stones” if the Article-35A is annulled.
“People in Kashmir didn’t take up gun in one day. If one doesn’t have a job or he can’t own a shop, if one is summoned regularly to police stations, picked up by army, then what option does he have?,” he asked, before quickly adding: “The only option left for him is to pick up arms. This is the cause of militancy in Kashmir”.
“When there are no jobs and if people can’t do their business, then people in Jammu will also pelt stones and pick up gun,” he said.
He also refuted the allegations that Kashmiris got “more jobs” because of bias in the administration.
“Earlier I also had the same thinking (of bias towards Jammu). But not anymore. People in Kashmir were getting more jobs because of their qualification. Kashmiri people are ahead of us in terms of hard work, jobs, studies,” he said.