Sparks fly as Lok Sabha passes Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh budgets

Sparks flew between the opposition and the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha as it approved the budgets for a newly carved out union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Opposition targeted the Narendra Modi government for a clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir since the surprise reading down of Article 370 that granted special status to the state, bifurcating it into two union territories and putting political leaders under prolonged preventive detention.

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“Is Kashmir an open jail,” Trinamool member Saugata Ray said hitting out at the Modi government for imposing a clampdown in Jammu & Kashmir.

Initiating the debate on the financial business related to J&K, and Ladakh, Congress member Manish Tewari slammed the Modi government for the continued detention of former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and scores of political activists in the Kashmir Valley.

“It would have been better if the budget for Jammu and Kashmir could have been discussed in the Assembly,” Tewari said describing the decisions taken in August last year as a “tragedy” for the two union territories.

“This budget discussion is just ceremonial and not in true spirit, because we are not Kashmiris,” DMK member A Raja said.

BJP fielded two union ministers – Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh and Minister of State for Home G Kishen Reddy – to rebut the opposition claims.

Singh claimed that the opposition had described the August decisions as disastrous for J&K, but the reality on the ground was quite different.

He claimed that since August, houses were being built for poor at a faster pace, roads and highways were being constructed and 50,000 youth had got jobs.

“Prophets of doom have been proved wrong,” Singh said.

Reddy rejected Saugata Ray's allegation that Kashmir had been turned into an open jail.

“It is not an open jail. It is open for all today. It is open for tourists. It is shut for terrorists,” he said.

Responding to the debate, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Parliament was discharging its Constitutional duty by discussing the budgets for J&K and Ladakh and listed out previous instances when it had been done.

“Development is happening at a great speed for the benefit of the SC/ST, women, and all sections of the society,” Sitharaman said