Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday recalled her trip to Jammu and Kashmir with her grandmother Indira Gandhi as she addressed her first public meeting in Jammu's Bishnah ahead of the third phase of the J&K Assembly elections. 


She said that she was just 12 years old when they had visited the UT and had returned to the national capital just 4-5 days before the former Prime Minister's assassination.


"...You may not know that 4-5 days before the assassination of my grandmother Indira ji, we were sitting at home, I was 12 years old, Rahul was 14 years old. Suddenly grandmother said, I feel like going to Kashmir, I want to see the Chinar trees that fall during autumn. So we both were children and were very happy to go with our grandmother. She brought us to Kashmir. For the first time, she took me to the temple of Kheer Bhawani...Then we came to Delhi and after 3-4 days she was assassinated and became a martyr... And since then, whenever I go to Srinagar, I definitely visit Kheer Bhawani Mata and remember my grandmother," she said.






She further said that Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is ruling the Union Territory according to his will and has established a rule of loot and remote control rule. She also criticised the PM Modi-led government for turning the lands of the UT into "land banks", scams, unemployment, and "snatching away the rights" of the people of here.


"LG is ruling Jammu and Kashmir according to his own will. He has established loot and remote control here. Your lands have become land banks. Big industrialists are opening their retail stores and your small businesses are being closed down. The youth of Jammu and Kashmir are unemployed. Recruitment papers get leaked, whereas they should get the right to jobs," she said.






Referring to PM Modi's rally address in Katra, Priyanka Gandhi said that there was no honesty, truth, or seriousness in his speech and that he should have spoken about what had happened in J&K after he "snatched away" its statehood. 


"He said we have improved the Katra railway station in the past ten years...I was thinking you have been a PM for ten years and you are counting the works of the railway station... Changes and development happen, it is not a big deal...He did not talk about the problems of the people of Jammu and Kashmir...Why is he not talking about the truth? Why did he not speak about what happened when he snatched away the state from you and what you suffered?...J&K's statehood was your right... which has been snatched away," she said.






She said PM Modi was "promoting Adani-Ambani" and the the LG was promoting his "friends".


"Reliance's retail stores are growing rapidly in Jammu and Kashmir, but who will increase the business of local general stores and markets? When a Dalit officer exposes the Jal Jeevan Mission scam, instead of investigating it, he is harassed. Has this become our tradition?"






She further accused the BJP of making Jammu and Kashmir a pawn in their political chess and alleged that the policies made for the people here are meant to do politics in the country using sentiments. 


"Jammu and Kashmir is the pinnacle of the country. Nature gave you beauty, resources, great spiritual gurus, who came from here and talked about religion and peace in the country and abroad...But BJP leaders have made Jammu and Kashmir a pawn in their political chess...Policies are not made for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Even the policies that are made are made to do politics in the country," Priyanka Gandhi said.






Although Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Rahul Gandhi had been campaigning for the ongoing Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, today was the first time that Priyanka Gandhi joined the campaigning in the UT and addressed rallies ahead of the third and final phase of the J&K polls.


The third phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will be held on October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 8.