Amarnath issue gave handle to Hurriyat and separatists

New Delhi, Aug 20 (UNI) The Congress today said the Amarnath land row had given a handle to the Hurriyat Conference and separatist movements to raise their 'ugly head' and also given life and strength from near dormant state, and asserted that the number of Amarnath yatris had gone up under the Congress-led rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

AICC Geenral Secretary in-charge of Media Veerappa Moily said there had been attempts to transport fruits to Pakistan based on the rumours that highways heading from Kashmir valley to Jammu and from Jammu to Punjab and also other highways had been blocked.

''Rumour mills both from the BJP from the Jammu front and at the Kashmir Valley from the Hurriyat and separatist groups have converged to threaten the unity of the country,'' he said.

Mr Moily said the rally's which were held at the instance of the Hurriyat both at the LoC and at Srinagar before the office of the United Nations suggest internationalising the issue. On the other hand, the BJP and other forces also had held rally in Jammu. ''The sum total of their activities tends to threaten the unity of the country,'' he added.

He dismissed as 'totally false' the "propaganda" by the BJP that it was not interested in delimitation. He said the Congress-led government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad had resolved to go in for delimitation according to the Constitutional provisions and passed a resolution to appoint a delimitation commission as the national delimitation commission headed by Justice Kuldip Singh had no jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir.

The delimitation act should have come before the legislature, but it could not result in legislation in view of the dissolution of the Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. Further, it also required two third support of the members of the House and it could not have been passed without the support of other political parties as the Congress did not have two-third support.

Mr Moily said the present divisive policy pursued by the BJP was only the revival of the stand which was taken by BJP leader L K Advani on dividing Jammu and Kashmir into three states when he was the Deputy Prime Minister in the NDA government.

Saying that the Amarnath Yatra was a symbol of secular fabric of India, he said the flow of yatris had increased manifold under the government and also earlier Congress-backed government.

In 2003, the yatri arrivals was only 253,314 per annum. It has increased to 529,697 in 2008 from 400,000 in 2004 under the regime of the UPA government and also under the Jammu and Kashmir government with alliance of the Congress party.

''This reflects the political stability and also the environment of the confidence created by the UPA government at the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government with Congress alliance.'' He said the Congress government after very skilful handling, had brought back normalcy to the state by effectively curbing terrorism.

Work culture was beginning to take root and the people of Jammu and Kashmir began working three shifts.

UNI SH SW BD2005