Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said that while he cannot guarantee the restoration of Article 370 which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he can guarantee the return of statehood for the Union Territory.
“I would guarantee that because of my one dozen speeches in Rajya Sabha, I made the Prime Minister and Amit Shah Ji to accept that they would return statehood. We will get statehood and when we get it, I would guarantee land and job rights to the people here,” Azad said while addressing a public meeting in south Kashmir’s Anantnag.
This was Azad’s second public meeting in the Valley after his resignation from the Congress and ahead of the launch of his own political party along with other Congress dissidents in Kashmir.
Azad said if some people were promising the return of Article 370 -- which was scrapped by the Centre in August 2019 -- "let them", but he will not guarantee people something over which he has no control.
"What happened to the previous promises those people made?...I can promise you development. I will ensure you have a dignified life. I promise you that no policeman or Army man will knock the doors of the houses of my Gujjar-Bakerwal or Kashmiri brothers in the dead of the night.
"I promise you that the children of poor or even rich people will not be jailed and sent to Kathua or any other jail in the country for money. I promise you that no one will disrespect our sisters and daughters," he said.
The former J-K chief minister also promised that there will not be "fake" encounters.
"Once the statehood is restored, I can also guarantee land and job rights in J-K will be given only to the people of J-K," Azad said, adding "I cannot give you those guarantees which are not in my hand".
Pointing to J-K's tourism potential and the employment the sector can generate, he said he has "experience and many schemes in mind" which can bring two crore tourists to the UT every year.
Addressing his supporters, he asked them if they permit him to form a new political party, to which they replied in affirmative.
"Will you run the new party? Will you help in ascending it to power? Will you support my agenda of making a Khushaal Kashmir?," Azad asked. The people responded "Zaroor" (surely).
"I could have gotten lost in the politics at the national level, reached the zenith. But, I thought, my home, J-K, is burning. It is living under the shadow of unemployment, fear and helplessness, and I have to help it," he said, appealing people to support him.
The public meeting at Anantnag was the last scheduled part of Azad's programme in J-K after he quit the Congress party on August 26. He held a public rally in Jammu on September 4. In Kashmir, he addressed his first public meeting in Baramulla on September 11 and also met various delegations which called on him during his stay in the Valley.
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