Senior BJP leader proposes separate Jammu state, says Kashmiris are ‘not loyal to country’
New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and MLA Sham Lal Sharma has triggered a political row after asserting that the people of Kashmir are “not loyal to the country” and arguing that Jammu should be carved out as a separate state.
Speaking on January 19, Sharma said repeated unrest in the Kashmir Valley had disrupted what he described as the “naturally peaceful” atmosphere of Jammu. According to him, the creation of a separate Jammu state would allow the region to progress economically, socially and administratively, reported Deccan Chronicle.
Sharma claimed that Jammu contributes the bulk of the Union territory’s resources and alleged that it has faced decades of discrimination. He said nearly 80 per cent of electricity generation and a similar share of deposits in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank originate from Jammu. The BJP leader maintained that his comments reflected his personal views.
Following the remarks, the BJP leadership distanced itself from Sharma’s statements, clarifying that his views do not represent the party’s official stand.
The comments drew strong reactions from regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah dismissed the idea of separating Jammu as “absurd” and said the regions of Jammu and Kashmir are historically and culturally inseparable.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accused the BJP of having “ruined” Ladakh after its bifurcation and warned that a similar move in Jammu would repeat those mistakes. He said the proposal risked deepening communal and regional divides.
People’s Democratic Party president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti criticised Sharma’s remarks as being rooted in religious considerations linked to Jammu’s Hindu-majority character. She warned that dividing the region on communal lines would undermine the secular basis on which Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in 1947, after rejecting Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory.
Mufti further alleged that such proposals would reinforce the notion that Hindus and Muslims cannot coexist within a single political unit and accused the BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal of treating Jammu and Kashmir as a “laboratory” for divisive political experiments, the report said.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
