JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir unit of Congress on Sunday began a chain hunger strike here under its ‘Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq’ campaign to press for restoration of statehood to the Union Territory.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hameed Karra led dozens of party leaders and workers, including several former ministers and legislators, in front of the statue of last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh at Tawi bridge to begin the hunger strike.
“The chain hunger strike was supposed to commence simultaneously at Srinagar and Jammu on Saturday but it was delayed by one day in Jammu due to the Raksha Bandhan festival,” Karra told reporters after paying floral tributes to the Maharaja.
However, he said the venue of the hunger strike will be shifted near party headquarters at Shaheed Chowk along the residency road as the administration did not allow the party to set up a large tent for the participants.
The chain hunger strike commenced in Srinagar as per the schedule on August 9 and will continue till August 21, barring August 15 and 16.
Prominent among those attending the hunger strike include working president Raman Bhalla, former ministers Mula Ram, Choudhary Lal Singh, Yogesh Sawhney and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, AICC secretary Mohd Shahnawaz Choudhary, former legislator and chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, Member of Legislative Assembly Iftikar Ahmed and District development councilor T S Tony.
“The hunger strike aims at intensifying the Congress party’s campaign, which has been going on for the last six months across all the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir to awaken this blind, deaf and dumb government,” he said.
“We gathered near the statue of the Maharaja to take a pledge to continue our struggle for restoration of statehood to J&K which was the largest state in the country formed by Dogra rulers,” the PCC president said.
He said the Congress recently organised marches in Srinagar and Jammu and later shifted the campaign to Delhi by giving a call for ‘Delhi Chalo’ as part of the intensified campaign for statehood.
“After our return from Delhi last month, we announced an outreach programme from August 1 to 5 to mobilise support of the civil society, including traders and transporters and also observed the sixth anniversary of the downgrading of J&K on August 5 as black day in all the 20 districts,” he said.
He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi also wrote a joint letter to the prime minister before the start of Monsoon session to remind the government of its promises made to the people of J&K within and outside Parliament on restoration of statehood.
