Srinagar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Tuesday alleged that ‘cross-border links’ of the leaders of the regional parties had hampered the development process in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The cross-border links of the Abdullah and Mufti families did not let the J&K people develop as people in the rest of the country did in the past 70 years. People were deliberately deprived of basic amenities like schools and hospitals. Adequate employment opportunities were not generated for the youth,” Chugh said while addressing an election rally at Naidkhai, Sumbal in Bandipore district.
Asserting that the BJP was committed to taking people in J&K ‘out of the shadow of guns to a new era of development and progress’, he said: “All along, the Congress played a friendly match with these two parties (National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party) and kept the people at the mercy of terrorists.”
“People have been puppets in the hands of the ISI forces operating through the leaders of these political parties. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development programmes have started bearing fruits for the common man in J&K. A new era has dawned”, said Chugh.
He said the J&K youth has new aspirations now and a new vision of development and progress.
“He does not want bullets. He wants education and health facilities. All development schemes of prime minister Narendra Modi have started benefitting people. Under the rule of Abdullahs and Mufti, many discriminating policies were followed which harmed the state and many sections of society,” said Chugh while urging people to vote for the BJP candidates to ‘start a new chapter in J&K’.
