After a verbal spat between the Treasury and opposition benches over the Jammu and Kashmir's Hindu migration, the budget was passed.
Digital Desk: The Lok Sabha passed a budget for Jammu and Kashmir for 2022-23 on Monday, amid a spat between the Treasury and opposition benches over the departure of Hindus from the Valley, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accusing the Congress of abandoning the state's minority community.
During a budget debate, Congress, TMC, and other parties said that the government had failed to meet its goals when it repealed Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and urged that statehood be restored as soon as possible.
Opposition parties have also criticised the government for not doing enough to help displaced Kashmiri Pandits. This subject has resurfaced in the wake of the publication of the film Kashmir Files, which is based on the departure.
In response to the debate, Nirmala Sitharaman slammed the Congress over a series of tweets sent by its Kerala branch on Kashmiri Pandits uprooted from the Valley in the 1990s after militancy erupted.
"Our party's (Congress) belief is that the movement was sparked by the promise of financial gain and land in Delhi....another belief is that there is a protracted war between separatists and those who stand for India," she said, citing the tweets.
She also claimed that Congress was a government at the time of the evacuation and that the then-chief minister abandoned the people while terrorism was on the rise.
She claimed that while the Congress was in power, the then-prime minister visited a separatist who had allegedly slain an airforce officer and afterwards admitted it to a foreign television station.
After the Speaker refused to allow the opposition members to intervene, MPs from the Congress, NCP, TMC, and National Conference walked out of the Lok Sabha to protest the minister's remarks.
The House passed the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir, totalling Rs 1.42-lakh crore and Supplementary Demands for Grants, totalling Rs 18,860.32 crore for the Union Territory.
Normalcy has been restored to Jammu and Kashmir following the abolition of special status, according to Sitharaman, after "false normalcy" existed previously.
Many sections of Article 370 were abolished by the government in August 2019, resulting in the termination of Jammu and Kashmir's unique status. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, as a result of this.
Leave A Comment