Congress opposed to rights for Valmikis, OBCs, STs, refugees: Dr Jitendra

STATE TIMES NEWS

UDHAMPUR: Making a scathing attack on the appeasement policy followed by Congress Party, Union Minister and BJP Candidate for Udhampur-Doda-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency Dr Jitendra Singh said on Thursday that Congress is opposed to the grant of the rights for Valmikis, OBCs,Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and refugees.
Addressing a series of public meetings during the election campaign in the Udhampur Panchayat and urban areas here today, Dr Jitendra said, it was because of the discriminatory approach of the successive Congress governments that for 60 to 70 years after independence, the Valmikis did not get their Citizenship rights and were also denied the opportunity to apply for jobs equivalent to their qualifications or merit. He said, it was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, the constitutional changes were brought about and Valmikis in Jammu & Kashmir today have an equal opportunity to aspire for the highest level of placement depending upon their merit, aptitude and hard work. Asking the Congress Party to make its position clear, Dr Singh said, the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha constituency had been before 2014 represented by Congress candidates for several years and decades but they deliberately denied the genuine rights to these sections of society. Similarly, he said, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who gave political reservation to Scheduled Tribes so that the people belonging to these sections of society can also now aspire to become MLAs and Ministers.
Dr Jitendra recalled that the Congress Party has a long history of giving lip service to Scheduled Castes only to secure their votes, but on the ground, it has always worked against the interests of Scheduled Castes. So much so, he said, it is the Congress Party which was responsible for the defeat of Baba Sahab Ambedakar in the Lok Sabha election. Not only this, he said, Jawaharlal Nehru was also not in favour of making Baba Sahab Ambedakar a Minister in the interim government and it was only after the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi that Ambedakar got a berth in the Cabinet.
It is a unique case, said Dr Singh, that for more than six decades after having moved over to India following partition of the subcontinent in 1947, the refugees coming from the West Pakistan were not given Citizenship rights by the Congress governments even though the same section of society produced two Prime Ministers namely Inder Kumar Gujral and Dr. Manmohan Singh who had chosen to settle in parts of India other than J&K.
Dr Jitendra said, the first two terms of the Modi government have been consumed in correcting the fallacies of the past and filling up the gaps left by the Congress and allied governments. Whether it was development or for social justice, in both the cases, course correction was done and things were put back on the right track, he said.
Elaborating further, Dr Singh said, the third term of Prime Minister Modi will be dedicated to consolidating gains of the earlier two terms and Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency will emerge as an important hub of North India. He expressed confidence that the weaker sections of the society neglected by the Congress governments will very soon be at par with their counterparts in other sections of society.
Dr Jitendra said that in order to achieve the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ as envisaged and visualised by Prime Minister Modi, it is important that each and every Indian makes a contribution depending on his capabilities and potential regardless of whichever strata of society he belongs to.
It is with this understanding and motivation that Prime Minister Modi has provided an equitable level playing field to weaker sections of the society so that they can all become a part of the growth story of India over the next 20 years, he said.
Accompanying Dr Jitendra in today’s election tour were former BJP President Arun Gupta, OBC President Sunil Prajapati, MLA B S Mankotia, MLA RS Pathania, DDC Amit Sharma, DDC Parikshit Singh, DDC Jatto Ram, DDC Babli Sharma, Mandal Presidents Dinakar Gupta, Mohinder Singh,PRIs, important leaders of BJP and others.