- ‘Asked ECI to hold Assembly polls'
Adil Ahmad
Srinagar, Mar 27
Bhartiya Janta Party Wednesday said there was no question of lifting the ban on JKLF and Jamiet-e-Islami.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP National General Secretary, Ram Madhav, said that ban on JKLF and JeI has been imposed to “bring peace” to the Valley.
“Nobody shall dream about that ban will be lifted on them. It is impossible. The ban on anti-national forces will continue,” Madhav said.
Asked that whether the Centre would ban mainstream parties like the PDP as claimed by BJP leader Kavindar Gupta over Mehbooba's statement that she would lift ban on JeI if comes to power and her party workers are “real Mujahidin”, he replied, “Will she come to the power again? The government will think on which group or party the ban has to be imposed. The government will ban all those groups and parties who want to separate JK with the country.”
Both JKLF and the JeI have been declared unlawful associations by the Centre under the anti-terror law.
Taking an exception to National Conference leader Akbar Lone's remarks, Madhav demanded that action be taken against Lone.
“I would like to ask National Conference leadership if they agree with the statement of Akbar Lone over Pakistan? We demand that the administration registers FIR against him over such anti-India statements to provoke people. It has exposed the character of regional parties. There is a leader, who says her party workers are real Mujahidin. These are people (militants) who killed a 12-year-old boy and attempted to rape girls,” he claimed.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has said that her party workers were “real Mujahidin”.
Lone, who is National Conference's Parliamentary candidate from Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, had on Saturday raised pro-Pakistan slogans at a rally in Kupwara district and called Pakistan “his Muslim nation on the other side”. He also allegedly threatened to abuse anyone who abuses Pakistan.
Madhav, who was the architect of the PDP-BJP alliance, said that they have asked Election Commission of India to hold Assembly Elections in the state as early as possible.
“After municipal and parliamentary elections, we want early assembly elections now,” he said, adding that there had been substantial and hard action against “militancy, and development work in the state are progressing at a fast pace”.
“I would like to ask the two regional parties who announced their candidates for Lok Sabha elections, when municipal elections were being held here they were asking people to boycott it. They said Article 35A and Article 370 is under threat due to Modi govt. Our stand is same on these issue but Farooq Sahab and Mehbooba Ji are interested in Parliamentary polls,” he said.
He was flanked by BJP's candidate for Srinagar Parliamentary seat Khalid Jehangir and former minister Satya Pal Sharma.
Elections for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly weren't announced in tandem with the Lok Sabha polls – a move that was criticised by NC and PDP.
The state is currently under President's rule since the BJP withdrew support for the PDP and Mehbooba Mufti in June last year.
He said that BJP is confident of winning seats in Jammu and Ladakh and party was trying its best to improve its position in the Kashmir Valley as well.
“I want ask people of Kashmir to vote for those who want peace and development and not promote and resort to anti-national statements,” he said, adding, “Militancy graph has gone down and people are happy to see peace here”.
He also delivered a scathing assessment of the Congress' chances in the upcoming elections, opining that the Rahul Gandhi-led party was certain of its defeat.
