BJP to intensify stir on Amarnath issue: Venkaiah

Hyderabad, Aug 20 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will intensify its agitation demanding restoration of 100 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) as per High Court order and recall of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra, senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said today.

The partymen would embark on ''Jail bharo'' stir in all the district headquarters in the country tomorrow, he announced at a press conference here.

The ruling Congress was solely responsible for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir assuming serious proportions, the BJP MP alleged, adding, ''the problem in J and K is not Hindu versus Muslim or even Jammu versus the Kashmir Valley as being projected by the Congress and its ally People's Democratic Party.

''It was the ''Nehruvian'' policy of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir which is the root cause of the present problem in that state,'' he claimed.

''The agitators are essentially nationalists, who are waging a struggle for justice holding against separatists, who were agitating holding Pakistani flags, resisting transfer of land,'' he charged.

The UPA government had ''surrendered to the separatists'' for short term political interests, playing ''vote bank politics'', he alleged.

He demanded the provisions of the Amarnath Shrine Act 2000 be implemented in letter and spirt. Opposing the Jammu and Kashmir Government's proposal that the tourism department be entrusted with the task of providing facilities for pilgrims, he said under Article 26 of the Constitution, religious places should have the freedom to manage their own affairs. Under Article 27, a secular state could not spend taxpayers money for religious purposes, he pointed out. The previous Ghulam Nabi Azad Government's order providing the land to the Shrine Board should be restored, he demanded.

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