'Mega publicity event' of ministerial visits to J&K a 'flop show': Congress

Terming the visit of 36 central ministers to Jammu and Kashmir as a "mega publicity event", Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Friday lashed out at the BJP for conducting a "flop show" and said it was aimed to divert attention of the masses from "burning issues".

JKPCC lambasted the BJP saying the mainstream opposition parties and leaders are not free to carry out routine political activities due to restrictions and "vindictive steps" of the government.

However, the BJP government tries to engage the people in such "meaningless photo-ops", thus keeping the entire administrative machinery especially field functionaries on the tenterhooks instead of attending to the problems of the local population.

"The mega publicity event of the visit of 36 central ministers is a flop show and an exercise in futility just todivert the attention of the common masses from the burning issues in the country, but utterly failed to create any impact on the ground in the absence of public response," JKPCC President Ghulam Ahmed Mir told reporters here.

He said the visit was an "event management exercise" of the BJP and the Narendra Modi-led government.

Mir claimed the government's aim in organising the visit was to cover the failures of the BJP government at the centre and to divert the attention of the people from large scale social and political upheavals.

"Such a situation created by BJP-led government resulted in the unfortunate downward trend by 10 places in the assessment of the index of democracies in the world apart from already distressing trends in our economy," he added.

Mir questioned the benefits of the event to the people at the huge expense of tax payers' money as "the visiting ministers had nothing to offer to the people except to inaugurate the petty developmental works, a job meant to be carried out by a local sarpanch".

He said the lack of interest and response of the general public reflected the people's wisdom as they had realized the "publicity stunt" of the BJP government, he added.

JKPCC also questioned the different yardsticks in the matter of basic security cover to opposition leaders in this sensitive region.

"The government and administration is extending all sorts of luxuries to the former legislators and even non-legislator leaders of the BJP including ministerial bungalows and quarters to most of them, apart from heavy security cover and vehicles to them," he said.

Taking a dig at the BJP government, he said the top leaders of Congress and others are deprived of the required security cover to dissuade them from carrying out their political activities in such a sensitive situation.

"Which democracy permits different yardsticks in the matter of security cover to the same category of people, who are vulnerable to the designs of terrorists due to their political role?" he asked.

he also said top police officers have on-record admitted to more than 250 terrorists being active in J-Kdespite heavy security operations.

Mir sought the release of all political detainees and an atmosphere free fromany unreasonable and unjustifiable restrictions or administrative "vendetta" to create a conducive political situation in the UT for credible and meaningful political activity.

He announced that Congress would go ahead with its declared goal of seeking statehood with full constitutional safeguards for the protection of rights of the local youth over land and government jobs.

He accused the the ruling dispensation of failing to create political space and taking away the rights of the local people as well as the basic identity of a historical state and downgrading it into a UT.