Congress' former president Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Jammu on September 9 and 10 and during his visit he is likely to offer prayers at Mata Vaishno Devi temple. This will be Gandhi's second visit to J&K since the abrogation of Article 370.
Earlier in August this year, Rahul Gandhi had visited the union territory since the abrogation of Article 370 where he held series of deliberations with Congress leaders and workers. The Congress leader during his two day vist batted for restoration of full Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
While addressing a party meeting in Srinagar he said “free and fair elections” should be held in Jammu and Kashmir. “We demand the restoration of full Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and free and fair elections here,” he said after inaugurating a new building for the party headquarters in Srinagar.
Rahul Gandhi also made references to his Kashmiri origin while drawing a contrast between the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) policy of engagement and deliberation as compared to the hard-fisted policies of the Modi government. “My family lives in Delhi. Before that my family lived in Allahabad. And before Allahabad, my family lived here.” Before the event, Gandhi offered prayers at the Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine in Ganderbal in central Kashmir, the revered shrine of Kashmiri Pandits. He also visited the Hazratbal shrine.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had ruined the progresses made by the UPA in Kashmir. “When we were in power, we started lots of programmes like Panchayat elections, Udaan, etc. We also brought in industrialists to invest in Jammu and Kashmir. We were trying to unite and join. They (BJP) have attacked it,” he said.
After inaugurating a new party headquarters there, a visibly emotional Gandhi said, “My family lives in Delhi. Before that my family lived in Allahabad. And before Allahabad, my family lived here.”
Before the event, Gandhi offered prayers at the Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine, the revered shrine of Kashmiri Pandits, in Ganderbal in central Kashmir.
Reacting to the suggestion of senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that a bill for the restoration of statehood to J-K be brought during the current session of Parliament, Gandhi said there were several issues that he wanted to raise in Parliament, but the opposition was not allowed to speak there.
