Pointing towards the repeated statements of Ram Madhav, National general secretary of BJP in a meeting in Jammu assuring and re-assuring the safeguarding the interests of every Kashmiri without acknowledging the rights and interests of the people of the Jammu region, NPP chairman and former minister Harshdev Singh reminded the BJP that they had made promises with the people of Jammu as well. He regretted that with Jammu related issues pushed into the oblivion, it was Kashmir region which continued to be the centre of entire political discourse in the said Jammu programme. Addressing public meeting at Ramnagar after remaining under detention for 58 days today, Singh said that the repetitive use of phrases like “Every Kashmiri is ours”, “ensuring peace, progress and development for each and every member of last village in Kashmir” and “every step will be taken to change the destiny of Kashmiris” without making even a mention of the most genuine concerns of Jammuites had once again disappointed the nationalist people of the region. He said that only recently the Union Govt had deputed to Valley several teams including MHRD, Horticulture and that of Minority Affairs Ministry identifying a plethora of schemes in Education and other Centrally sponsored projects for socio-economic development of Kashmir region without the said high level committee bothering to visit Jammu region. And now, the visit of Ram Madhav to Jammu turned out to be damp squib for the region as he too, failed to address the aspirations of the people who constituted the core constituency of BJP. He regretted that not a word was said about safeguarding the interests of the unemployed youth or for saving the lands of the poor farmers who felt threatened due to repeal of several land laws. Nor a word was said about the traders of Jammu region who continued to suffer huge losses due to the restrictions imposed in the state. Post Article 370 abrogation scenario revealed that Jammu region had no place in the itinerary of the BJP, harsh dev rued.
