It’s time to cast a vote for change, says Congressman Raj Babbar

Senior Congressman and well-known campaigner Raj Babbar said on Saturday that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being severely mistreated by the BJP-led federal government and that it is time to elect new leaders.

Actor-turned-politician Choudhary Lal Singh said that the nation as a whole was tired of the Modi government’s “anti-youth, anti-poor, and anti-farmers policies” while speaking at a sizable rally in support of Singh, the Congress candidate for the Udhampur parliamentary seat.

Elections for the Lok Sabha seat of Udhampur are scheduled for April 19. Jitendra Singh, a Union minister, has been put up by the BJP for the seat.

“It is time to bring about a change through the ballot box. The BJP has done injustice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in every aspect,” the Congress leader said.

Babbar also attacked the government for initiating the Agnipath military recruiting program, arguing that it destroyed young people’s hopes of enlisting in the military and ruined their future.

He promised that if Congress was elected to power, it would end the program and start holding regular recruiting drives again.

Lal Singh, the head of the National Panthers Party and a former minister Harshdev Singh, Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani, and former Union minister and AICC in-charge for J-K Bharat Singh Solanki also spoke at the event.

According to Babbar, the Congress will fulfill its manifesto commitments to help workers, farmers, women, and youth.

In an attempt to win over support for Lal Singh, Babbar said that Singh is a defender of the rights of the underprivileged and a champion against injustice.

“The BJP government deprived Jammu and Kashmir of its status, rights, and dignity,” Solanki said, perhaps alluding to the repeal of Article 370, which granted the region special status, and the division of the former state into two Union Territories in August 2019.

He was alluding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Friday election speech in Udhampur, when he said that prominent BJP figures were pouring in one by one to campaign because they were aware that voters were determined to effect change.

Wani attacked the Modi administration and the BJP for allegedly “destroying the democratic system” in Jammu and Kashmir. People’s rights have been taken, resources have been plundered, and our state has been devalued. The size of the gathering on the day after the prime minister’s rally is indicative of the sentiment of those who want to hold the BJP accountable,” he said.

Lal Singh gave the assembly his word that he will keep fighting for the rights of those who have been denied their “identity, status, and rights to land and employment.”