Under a large marquee, hundreds of Congress supporters on Monday gathered in Srinagar’s Zainakote area, on the outskirts of the city, to attend an election rally led by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. 

Gandhi showed up in Srinagar on Monday afternoon after addressing a similar rally in Jammu division’s Surankote area to drum up support for Congress-National Conference candidates in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Waving flags and sporting party stoles, the supporters, including women, cheered enthusiastically as Gandhi took the stage. 

He began his address with a pointed attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that his confidence has vanished. 

“INDIA block and Congress party have broken the psychology of Modi ji,” Gandhi said. 

He said that for the last ten years, wherever the PM and the BJP leaders went, they spread hatred. 

“They incite division among brothers, fuel rivalries between States and pit one language against another,” Gandhi said, adding that hatred could not be countered with hatred, but with love. 

Referring to his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said that he walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and “established a shop of love wherever the BJP had set up a market of hate”. 

Demand for statehood

Upbraiding the BJP government for downgrading Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, Gandhi said that it had happened for the first time in the history.

“In India, Union Territories have been upgraded to States, and States have been divided to carve out new ones, but for the first time, a State has been stripped of its rights and converted into a UT,” said Gandhi, adding that people of Jammu and Kashmir had been stripped of democratic right. 

“We seek the restoration of statehood as soon as possible. We wanted it to be restored even before the elections, but the BJP did not do it,” he said, and reiterated that the Congress party would mount pressure on the BJP to restore statehood. 

“And if they fail to do so, I guarantee you that we will restore it as it is your democratic right,” Gandhi said. 

He said that the BJP had disempowered the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Gandhi criticised the Prime Minister for “mann ki baat” while forgetting the “Kaam ki Baat”

Attacking BJP for prompting corporates  

Gandhi castigated the  PM and the BJP for working for a select few. He claimed that the government waived ₹16 lakh crore debt of 25 people. 

“They are not waving off the loans of the poor, farmers, students and women,” said Rahul.

He said that the government shut small and medium businesses while implementing flawed GST and carrying out demonetisation.

“And it has resulted in unemployment in both Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country,” said Gandhi. 

Promises

Gandhi promised that the INDIA bloc government would provide one lakh government jobs to the unemployed youth and ₹3,500 as unemployment allowance, besides ₹3,000 per month for women and a loan of ₹5 lakh for women including in Self Help Groups (SHGs). 

He also said that they would set up mobile clinics and a super-speciality hospital in every district . 

“We are going to provide ₹25 lakh health insurance scheme on the lines of Rajasthan. Additionally, our government will provide an 11 kg ration to each family,” Gandhi said. 

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