De–recognize BJP and JKAP: Harsh Dev
Jammu, 03-11-2021: Accusing the BJP leadership of engineering communal divide in J&K on the eve of elections and promoting hatred on the basis of caste and religion, a strong contingent of NPP led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP & former Minister and Mr. Yash Paul Kundal General Secretary-JKNPP & former Minister, held a massive protest at Press Club, Jammu today. The protestors raising slogans against the BJP leadership sought appropriate punitive action against all those who were trying to polarize the society on communal lines to subserve their vested political interests and other nefarious designs.
Dubbing the utterances of BJP’s ex-MLC against a particular community as an absurd act of histrionics, Mr. Singh said that BJP owed an explanation to the entire citizenry for such divisive and profane remarks made by its senior leader. It was the worst orchestration on the part of a senior leader of a ruling party which had failed to illicit appropriate response from the BJP leadership except a casual statement of condemnation only as a window dressing for the gullible. He said that rebuking a community as a whole was a serious offence and needed to be taken due cognizance by the powers that be. Anyone promoting communal hatred needed to be tried for conspiracy to destabilize the nation and vitiate peace besides offences relating to restoration of public order. But since it was a part of BJP’s machiavellian designs and a political strategy, it was being downplayed and trivialized by making casual statements of removal of BJP leader from party positions merely to buy time and allow the tensions to subside. Likewise a JKAP leader had made a highly vituperative and slanderous comment against another community only to promote tensions and thereby draw political mileage out of it. Calling for stern action against BJP and JKAP, Mr. Singh appealed to the Election Commission of India to derecognize these parties and debar them from participating in the coming elections in J&K.
Mr. Harsh said that having failed to deliver and consequently to face the public outrage, the BJP was trying to polarize the society so as to retain its dominance in the political landscape. And in doing so, its leadership seemed to have completely discarded the idea of inclusive and all encompassing India which was invariably cherished by the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani. The present day BJP does not seem to be the party of the said stalwarts who believed in pluralism and accommodation in the larger interests of the nation. Its sole agenda is to attain power and dividing the people on communal lines seems to be its modus operandi to achieve its avowed objective, asserted Mr. Singh.
Strongly condemning the communalization of politics for personal gains, Mr. Singh said that the political leadership needed to draw inspiration from the inclusive, pluralistic world view as encapsulated by our great saints and scholars in the slogan of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Gagan Pratap Singh, Parshotam Parihar, Surinder Chouhan, Capt. Sultan Singh, Ved Parkash Sharma, Rashpaul Singh, Karan Singh, Yoginder Sumbriya, Sunil Dutt, Mohinder Singh, B.D Sharma, Rattan Lal, Kimti Jangral, Sohan Singh, Lakhbir Singh, Rakesh Kumar besides others.
