JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani on Wednesday said the third term of the BJP-led NDA government will be a ‘guest for a while’ as “dictators do not take everyone along”. He reiterated his party’s demand for immediate restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and holding of assembly elections to restore democracy in the Union Territory. “If NDA government comes to power for the third term, write down that it will be a guest for a while as dictators do not take everyone along. The BJP’s slogan of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas’ is untrue and it stands exposed for using central and state agencies like the ED, CBI and police against opposition leaders to put them in jail. (Delhi Chief Minister Arvind) Kejriwal and (former Jharkhand chief minister) Hemant Soren are glaring examples,” Wani told reporters here. He claimed that India has not seen such a ‘dictator’ in its history and Congress, which ruled the country for most of the time, always respected opposition and the regional parties unlike the BJP which is using its strength and money power to bring down governments and break regional parties as was evident in Maharashtra. “Dictators do not run a government for long… If anyone runs the country and brings economic prosperity and strengthens the military, it is Congress which believes in taking every section of the society along in true sense,” Wani said. He said the first priority of the Congress is restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and safeguarding its culture, land and jobs besides holding assembly elections to hand over popular government to the people who are disappointed with the bureaucratic rule. The Congress leader thanked the people who voted for I.N.D.I.A. bloc candidates in the Lok Sabha elections and said despite both Congress candidates losing against BJP rivals from Udhampur and Jammu parliamentary seats, the results showed the party getting nearly 10 lakh votes. “We fought this election with our hands tied to our backs due to the freezing of our party accounts. There was no dearth of money with our rival party (BJP) and they utilized the money power to buy support. We are highly thankful to our workers who used their own resources and we put up a good fight in both the seats,” he said. He said the Lok Sabha results showed that Congress is on revival mode, winning more than double seats compared to 2019 elections, dashing BJP’s dream of ‘Congress Mukt’ Bharat. “All the promises made by BJP to the people of J-K proved false. The people are disappointed as inflation and unemployment have risen to the highest levels. If our government is formed at the centre, we will try to address all the issues concerning the public,” he said, adding Congress believed walking alongside the public was shown by Rahul Gandhi who took out two foot marches in the country to spread the message of love and stand against divisive politics. He said Modi factor played in the win of both the BJP candidates in Udhampur and Jammu but “we are sure that the outcome of the assembly elections will be different and Congress will sweep the polls in Jammu province.” On the victory of former MLA Engineer Rashid against former chief minister Omar Abdullah from Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, Wani said he was not expecting such an outcome as “we together campaigned in the constituency as Abdullah’s National Conference is part of INDIA bloc.” “Rashid is in jail for the last five years and a wave emerged in his favour. Now that he has won from the seat, we congratulate him,” he said, adding that many people voted in the constituency after decades.
