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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 19
The Congress on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of ruining the situation in Kashmir and then pulling out of the alliance government at its convenience.
It also ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Mehbooba Mufti-led People's Democratic Party (PDP).
"The opportunistic BJP-PDP alliance set fire to J&K, killing many innocent people including our brave soldiers. It cost India strategically & destroyed years of UPA’s hard work. The damage will continue under President’s rule. Incompetence, arrogance & hatred always fails," Congress president Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet on Tuesday evening.
"Whatever has happened is good. People of Jammu and Kashmir will get some relief. They (BJP) ruined Kashmir and have now pulled out," said senior Congress leader and former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
He stressed that the question of Congress forming an alliance with PDP "does not arise".
Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala pointed out that in the last four years, 373 security personnel and 239 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir due to heightened militancy.
"BJP's hunger for power has plunged Jammu and Kashmir into the fire of militancy. In the last four years, 373 jawans and 239 civilians killed.
What did the nation get out of this?" Surjewala said in a tweet.
"What's the use if you came to senses after the house is ransacked? You yourself set the house on fire and then became an onlooker. The BJP put on a new mask to play a new game," he added.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pointed out that the Narendra Modi government had claimed that demonetisation in 2016 had broken the back of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir but that did not seem true.
"Didn't BJP tell us that demonetisation had broken the back of terrorism in Kashmir? Then what happened?" he said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) criticised the BJP’s for its timing, saying its decision to pull out of the government would push the state deeper into instability.
“The BJP, which was an equal partner in all the decisions of the state government during these three years, can not absolve of itself of blames by pulling out of the government,” a communiqe of the party said. “It was the responsibility of the BJP in power at the Centre to take the initiative of controlling the situation in J&K. The BJP failed to redeem its promise to take confidence- building measures, and to hold dialogue with all stakeholders for a durable solution to the state's problem.”
It claimed that the BJP’s pullout was a manifestation of the party’s inconsistent and “faulty” policy on J&K.
“Earlier, it took a unilateral decision for ceasefire, and later called it off abruptly,” the statement said. With IANS
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