New Delhi: Former Minister and senior BJP Party leader Sham Lal Sharma came in favour of carving out Jammu as a separate state, and also said that the people of Kashmir are not loyal to the country. The remark drew sharp criticism from the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the BJP minister, if Jammu is separated from Kashmir, then the state would flourish economically, socially, and administratively. The continuous unrest in the Kashmir Valley has perpetually plagued the naturally peaceful environment of Jammu.
Sharma believes that Jammu would emerge as one of the most progressive and peaceful states in the country if granted statehood.
Jammu possesses a large share of natural and economic resources, and about 80 per cent of the electricity is generated by Jammu for the Union territory. Additionally, Jammu has faced decades of discrimination, claimed Sham Lal Sharma.
Later on, Sharma affirmed that his statements are his personal views; the BJP leadership distanced itself from his remarks, stressing that his statements do not represent the party’s official position, reported Deccan Chronicle.
Parties in Jammu and Kashmir slam Sham Lal Sharma
The Chief Minister, Farroq Abdullah, took a jibe at Sharma as he described the Jammu separation as ‘absurd’ and stated that Jammu and Kashmir are historically and culturally indivisible.
The CM added that the BJP had ruined Ladakh after its bifurcation and also warned the J&K residents that they would repeat the same things in their region and would deepen communal divides if Jammu separated.
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti also criticised Sharma’s proposal and warned that division would undermine the secular foundations on which Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in 1947, rejecting the two-nation theory of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Mufti accused the BJP, RSS, and the Bajrang Dal of using Jammu and Kashmir as a laboratory for alienation experiments that could later be replicated elsewhere in the country.