Jammu: Extending its support to 72-hour-long bandh call from June 19 in Jammu, Congress on Wednesday asked the people of the city to get ready for "decisive battle" over the demand of setting up of AIIMS in the region.
"We are fully extending our support to three-day-long Jammu bandh announced by the Coordination Committee on AIIMS. We appeal the people of Jammu to make it successful," state Congress's Senior Vice President Sham Lal Sharma said.
Congress will continue to back and support the coordination committee on AIIMS until the demand if fulfilled, Sharma told reporters in Jammu on Wednesday.
"BJP and its central leadership announced AIIMS for Jammu but diverted it to Kashmir. We are not against AIIMS in Kashmir, but only against the denial of AIIMS to Jammu. We are fighting for that," he said.
"I challenge BJP that we will get AIIMS at all costs. They cannot fool people by issuing statements and satisfy them unless the formal announcement is not made," he said.
Hitting out at BJP for trying to sabotage the movement of the hospital, Congress leader said that no AIIMS was announced by the previous government headed by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and only upgradition of the Government Medical College at Jammu was declared.
"If anybody produces documents relating to announcement of AIIMS in Jammu by BJP government at that time, I will leave politics," Sharma claimed.
He alleged that 100-day-rule of BJP-PDP government had been a "disaster and ridden with controversies, issues and problems. Governance has been impacted by controversies one after other".
"BJP has during last several decades while in opposition harped the music of discrimination with Jammu. But when they came to power, we thought that it would end discrimination but instead worked totally anti-Jammu," Sharma said.
Battng for fulfledged 'Regional Council' for Jammu, the Congress said it is a remedy for all ills.
Reacting sharply to the statements by the BJP state unit and its various ministers and other senior leaders, chief spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir Congress Ravinder Sharma accused the party of first deceiving and betraying the people of Jammu on the issue and now trying to weaken and sabotage the movement by their contradictory statements to confuse the general public by twisting facts.
However, the people have understood the real face of the BJP and are not going to buy their arguments until the demand is conceded as per the terms of the Coordination Committee, comprising of all social and religious organisations and civil society with active support of Congress party and some other political parties who are for equitable treatment to Jammu Region, he added.
Sharma questioned the role of BJP and said its ministers and other senior leaders are issuing contradictory statements to distort the actual facts in order to confuse the people about the present of status of AIIMS, so that the ongoing agitation and movement is weakened.
"The people are aware of the role of the BJP and its ministers and other leaders since the formation of the coalition with PDP and they(people) are not ready to accept their false assurances and hollow announcements".
"After having failed to secure the interests of the people of this region on the issue of AIIMS and various other issues of parity, the BJP and its leaders are doing great dis-service by their attempts to weaken and sabotage the ongoing movement, which however, would be taken to its logical conclusion at all costs," he added.
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