Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said the BJP's policy on Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh neither respects 'Kashmiriyat' nor upholds 'Jamhuriyat' . 
In a statement, he said the Modi government had claimed that the move to abrogate Article 370 would help in the integration of Jammu and Kashmir, boost economic development of the region and prevent terrorism and separatism. 

August 5 marked the fifth year of the revocation of Article 370 that had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir. On August 5, 2019, the state was downgraded to a Union Territory and divided into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which became a separate Union Territory. 

"However, the reality is starkly different. Since 2019, there have been 683 fatal terror attacks, resulting in the martyrdom of 258 security personnel and the loss of 170 civilian lives. Notably, 25 terror attacks have occurred in the Jammu region since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term, claiming the lives of 15 soldiers and injuring 27," Kharge said. 
He added that the targetted killings of Kashmiri Pandits have become a norm in the past few years. "A staggering 65% of government department posts in Jammu and Kashmir remain vacant since 2019."

The Congress president said the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 10%, with an alarming 18.3% youth unemployment rate. Despite the introduction of the New Industrial Policy in 2021, a mere 3% of investments have materialised on the ground, he added. 
"About 40% of projects under the PM's development package, 2015, remain pending. Jammu and Kashmir's net state domestic product (NSDP) growth rate has declined from 13.28% (April 2015-March 2019) to 8.73% post-2019."

Kharge said the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh yearn for normalcy, a sentiment they conveyed to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"We demand that elections are held according to the Supreme Court deadline so that the people can elect their own representatives, secure Constitutional rights and put a full stop to this mechanism of being ruled by bureaucracy," he said. 

Kharge asserted that the Congress stands firmly with the people of these regions, which are an integral part of India.