CPI (M) leader Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami Monday said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah needs to make it clear as what it means when he says in the parliament that Jammu and Kashmir would get back the status of a state at an “appropriate time”.
A statement of CPI (M) issued here quoted Tarigami as saying that the BJP government had been making such vague statements for the past year-and-a-half.
It said that the Home Minister needs to define what “appropriate time” means.
“The BJP government can’t hide behind vague statements for a long time now,” he said in a statement. “When Amit Shah says that 17 months is a little time to make development happen in Jammu and Kashmir, he forgets that the BJP is in the government since last seven years at both the Center and J&K. First the BJP was in power in J&K in an alliance government for three-and-a-half years in J&K and since 2018, it is directly ruling the region.”
Tarigami said that Prime Minister NarendraModi and Amit Shah tried to justify the “wrong decision” of abrogation of J&K’s special status and “downgrading” of the erstwhile state into two union territories by stating that it would end the decades-long militancy, separatism and corruption in the region and bring development, jobs and prosperity to J&K.
“The BJP government was claiming that Article 370 hindered development in J&K but a-year-and-a-half down the line, the facts belie the claims of Modi and Shah. People of J&K and the country want to ask them how much development has happened. Where is the investment and job opportunities, which they claimed will come after the revocation of J&K’s special status,” he said in the statement.
Tarigami said making excuses was easy, but the reality was that August 5, 2019 decision of the BJP government was “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”.
“Now the BJP government is trying to hide behind the façade of excuses,” he said in the statement.