jammu: The demand for statehood is Jammu and Kashmir’s biggest issue and the Congress will use “our full power” to get it reinstated, party MP Rahul Gandhi said on Monday as his Bharat Jodo Yatra arrived here to a grand welcome.
The yatra started from Samba’s Vijaypur along the Jammu-Pathankot highway at around 7 am Monday and was received warmly by a massive crowd as it crossed Bari Brahmana in Jammu’s Parmandal.
Earlier, officials said all necessary arrangements were in place for the yatra. Amid chants of ‘Nafrat Chhodo, Bharat Jodo (essentially denouncing hatred to unite India)’, the yatra witnessed a huge number of policemen joining the security ring around the Gandhi family scion at Kaluchak as it moved ahead towards its Satwari Chowk.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, AICC communication incharge Jairam Ramesh, J&K Congress chief Vikar Rasool Wani, his predecessor G A Mir, working president Raman Bhalla and former minister Tariq Hamid Karra joined the yatra on its 129th day.
Gandhi, who met a cross section of people from Jammu and Kashmir during his yatra, said J&K has the highest level of unemployment in the country.
“The Congress party will fully support you and your statehood (demand). To reinstate statehood, the Congress will use our full power,” Gandhi told a gathering at the Satwari Chowk here.
“Statehood is your biggest issue. There is no big issue as big as statehood. Your right has been snatched,” he said.
Alleging that Kashmir Pandits are facing injustice at the hands of the government, Rahul Gandhi asked Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to apologise to the community for telling the prime minister’s package employees that they should not seek alms.
Gandhi made the statement shortly after a Kashmiri Pandit delegation called on him during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Samba district earlier in the day and briefed him about their various issues including “targeted killings” by terrorists and the resultant protest by those employed under the prime minister’s package.