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| Now Khajuria turns Muslim friendly | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 13: Being, so far, only party in full swing of election campaign, the local of unit of Bhartiya Janta Party is all out to woo the Muslims but projecting its “secular character”.
At least twice in week, the BJP is announcing number of prominent political leaders joining the party under leadership of state president Ashok Khajuria –the man who was all out against the community during the two month long Shri Amarnath shrine land agitation even though the Sangharsh Samiti never made any distinction on caste and community.
For two months when agitation was going on in Jammu, the BJP’s state president Ashok Khajuria issued repeated statements asking Muslims in various areas of the city to vacate their houses. Even though he would always say that he is talking about the sympathizers of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The BJP is making all efforts to reach out to the Gujjars among the Muslims who have always been supporters of the nationalist ideologies. When houses of Gujjars were burnt in Jammu, the BJP never even condemned the incident. It was the leadership of Sangharsh Samiti which issues repeated statements and appealed the agitators to ensure that there is no harm to Muslims to keep the agitation secular.
Now since the agitation is over, the BJP is rushing back to Muslims and rallies are being held in several areas to woo the voters. Party spokesman said that a largely attended public rally was organized at Arnas.
“The rally was meant to bring in focus the issues and challenges being faced by Jammu region sequel to the successfully concluded recent Jan Andolan and highlight the achievements of BJP. A huge number of Muslims participated in the rally where some very popular and respectable local Muslim leaders joined the party to work actively for it”, said the BJP spokesman.
Addressing the rally Ashok Khajuria said that it was BJP’s that started a large number of social welfare and reconstruction schemes for far-flung and remote areas during its rule at centre. “Those who accuse BJP of communalism are infact trying to mislead the minorities, especially Muslims to exploit them for their votes”, said Ashok Khajuria while addressing the rally.
Khajuria reminded the public that it Atal Behari Vajpayee who had initiated peace measures with Pakistan and had extended a hand of friendship to it. This was ultimately meant to free the people of remote hilly areas of the state from the depredations of the gun culture and gun totting miscreants masquerading as fighters.
Daya Krishan Kotwal in his address reminded the public that it was BJPs sterling struggle in early nineties which had forced the then Central Government to establish Village Defence Committees in hilly and remote villages of Jammu region. It was the establishment of these Village Level Defence Committees which was largely responsible for prevention of dislocation and mass migration of people from these areas.
Brig. Karan Singh Kotwal (Retd.) Purav Sanink Morcha President also addressed the rally and exhorted the public to vote unitedly and ensure that their votes do not get divided which has previously resulted in election of candidates who could did not deliver and fulfill the public expectations. He especially appeal to ex-soldiers of the area to be vigilant and ensure that genuine representative are elected and ensure the defeat of previous MLAs who have nothing to show for public service excepting their own aggrandizement. He appealed that they should vote for BJP candidates.
Kabla Singh, Mohd. Amin Sheikh, Madan Singh, Abdul Gani Chib, Samil Dar, Ch. Isrial Mohd., Riyaz Ahmed and Akthar Hussain also addressed the rally. |
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