Peeved over the gross neglect of Jammu province during BJP rule in the State with unprecedented bias against the unemployed educated youth of the region, a battalion of Panther activists spearheaded by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh-Chairman JKNPP, Mr. Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers and other leaders staged a vociferous protest demonstration against the Saffron party outside its National Head Quarters at Ashoka road in New Delhi today. The agitated protestors while raising anti-BJP slogans cautioned Saffron party to part ways with the PDP and quit the government in the State.The party activists were restrained by the huge contingent of Delhi police from entering the BJP Headquarters and after scuffle with security personnel they were arrested and detained in Police Station Mandir Marg, New Delhi.While addressing the media, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that BJP had not only bartered away the rights and interests of the people of Jammu region but sparked outrage in the Hindu community world wide by the highly abominable order of imposing unwarranted restrictions on Amarnat ji yatra and the rituals associated with it. This is the last nail in the coffin of the BJP which had lost its ‘Saffron sheen’ as well as the moral authority to continue in govt., Harsh said.Referring to the miserable plight of youth of Jammu region, Mr.Singh regretted that our educated unemployed and underemployed youth including contractual lecturers, ReTs, MNREGA workers, NHM employees, seasonal teachers, Anganwari and Asha workers,casual, daily rated, need based workers and other lower rung employees were made to languish in open for their genuine demands of absorption in regular services while entire thrust was on the valley in the matter of employment.
He said that the magnitude of discriminatory recruitment by the PSC and SSB in the BJP partnered Govt had severely shaken and shuddered the youth of entire Jammu province. Shameful servile posturing of BJP before the valley centric leadership had reduced the erstwhile negligible share of Jammu region in services to unprecedented 1-3 percent, anguished Harsh said. He said that selection of just one candidate out of 28 posts of state cadre Junior Assistants as against 27 candidates of Kashmir valley in the recently released list by SSB had proved beyond doubt that BJP could go to any extent to appease Kashmir leadership in a bid to retain its second fiddle role in the govt. He said that with anger of educated Jammu youth having reached its crescendo, the situation was more explosive in Jammu and needed to be addressed on war footing by constituting separate PSC and SSB for Jammu region.Mr. Singh added that the recent influx and illegal settlement of Rohingyas in Jammu, change of nomenclature of Hindu shrines and places, retention of Lakhanpur Toll Plaza in the State, BJP’s dual standards over article 35A, 370 , appeasement of separatists, release of 4500 stone pelters in the valley, humiliation of security personnel in Kashmir, FIRs against the nationalists for upholding tricolour and other national symbols etc. had brewed fears in the people’s mind that the Kashmir centric leadership was hell bent to establish a sectarian hegemony on fascist lines.
Accusing the BJP of pursuing separatist agenda, he regretted that it had despicably failed to declare 23rd Sept as State holiday on Maharaja Hari Singh’s birthday despite the resolution been adopted in the State’s Legislative Council which had immensely dented Dogra pride and honour. Lashing out severely on BJP for criminally aborting the construction of ‘Artificial Lake’ in Jammu besides its silence over the delay in restoration of Mubarak Mandi Heritage Complex, Mr. Singh said that the criminal acquiescence of the Saffron party over the most coveted projects would take a toll on Jammu's much hyped beautification drive.Vowing to oppose, expose and depose BJP for its meek surrenders, Mr. Yash Paul Kundal held it culpable for uncertainty over several projects like AIIMS, Smart City for Jammu, Dogri Satellite channel for Jammubesides others. He said that the public outrage against the double standards and duplicity of Saffron party over the core issues of Jammu Pradesh would weed out BJP from its core soil in the coming days.Prominent among those who were detained and arrested included Rajesh Padgotra, Romesh Khajuria, Gagan Pratap Singh, Shankar Singh Chib, Parshotam Parihar, Neeraj Gupta, Rajeshwar Singh, Mohinder Singh, Vishav Singh, Bajinderpal Singh, Rohit Sharma, Bashiruddin, Shakti Singh, Naseeb Singh, Rajiv Khosla, Surjit Singh, Jagmohan Paswan, AJ Rajan, Manjeet Singh, Pawan Kumar, Arun Khajuria besides others.