BJP trampled Maharaja Hari Singh’s legacy with August 5, 2019 decisions: Sadhotra

Jammu, Sep 28: National Conference Additional General Secretary and former Minister, Ajay Kumar Sadhotra has taken a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging it of “systematically trampling the legacy of Maharaja Hari Singh, by bifurcating and degrading Jammu and Kashmir,” said a party press release.

Speaking at a function held at Dargali and Barbalwan Panchayat Kangar in Jammu North Assembly Constituency to distribute relief material among rain- flood hit people, Sadhotra alleged “if there is any service the BJP has done to the Maharaja, it is the unfortunate bifurcation of his vast and historic state into two Union Territories, and thereby degrading it to the lowest possible political status.” “The Maharaja could never have imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that the state would be reduced to this humiliation,” he said. He accused the BJP of “destroying the constitutional safeguards that had been enshrined under Article 35A, a provision that guaranteed jobs and land rights exclusively to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“This historic safeguard was not merely a legal clause; it was a solemn assurance to the people of the state, resonating with the spirit of Maharaja Hari Singh’s laws to protect the interests of state subjects. The BJP’s erasure of Article 35A is nothing short of a betrayal of the Maharaja’s vision and the aspirations of people,” he said.

Sadhotra lamented that by abrogating Article 370 and scrapping 35A, the BJP government has “inflicted wounds that strike at the very soul of J&K’s identity”.