RSS, BJP breaking J&K’s composite culture, says Rahul

JAMMU: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of trying to break the composite culture of Jammu & Kashmir.

“The feeling of love, brotherhood that exists among you all is being ruined by the people of BJP and RSS. Your composite culture was attacked, your brotherhood was attacked and they weakened you before snatching your statehood,” Gandhi told party officer bearers at a function, on the second day of his two-day visit in Jammu.

The Congress leader, who paid obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra on Thursday, said: “There are three symbols of mata (pindis) there - Mata Durga, Mata Lakshmi and Mata Saraswati. Durga ji symbolises the to protect, Lakshmi ji fulfils one’s aim and Saraswati ji is for knowledge. The BJP weakened all these powers.” Gandhi further recalled how the three powers were strengthened during the Congress regime when the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA was implemented and the gross domestic product rate stood at 9%. Pointing towards his hand, he correlated the Congress election symbol with Lord Shiva and Guru Nanak Dev, and said it was the symbol of being fearless.

“This hand is the symyou bol that should not be afraid of anything,” he said, adding that the “BJP is afraid of everything”. The Conpower gress leader also reached out to displaced Kashmiri Pandits, saying he and his family belong to this community, and promised them all help. “I do not tell lies,” the Congress leader said.

Hitting back, BJP leader Sambit Patra said: “Astonishingly Gandhi forgot that the woes of the Kashmiri Pandit’s were because of the ‘politics of appeasement’ of Congress. Congress for its petty vote bank politics sacrificed also the development of Kashmir.”