J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that if Pakistan used the terror of a gun to shut the Union Territory (UT) down, there was nothing wrong if he used a stick to counter it.
While speaking on Saturday, 21 August, he also said that no force had been used to show normalcy in the UT on the second anniversary for the revocation of the state's special status on 5 August. He was speaking at an event to launch launch a book titled, 'Kashmir: The War of Narratives'.
“People told me there would be a bandh on 5 August. It didn’t strike me that 5 August was some important date… But with God’s grace, there was no bandh. A journalist told me at the end of the day that I have used the baton to ensure there was no bandh. I argued that all traffic was running and people, in large numbers were shopping. All this was not possible through a baton. But if you think it was, then I accept it. After all, the bandh is enforced by Pakistan and the gun of a terrorist. So if I have used the baton, I did no wrong.”LG Manoh Sinha said.
Further elaborating on his statement, he said there will be no compromise, "I believe this should be very clear that this is the fine line and no one is allowed to cross it… Until I am here, this will be the stand.” He said it was important to move away from misconceptions created by self-appointed experts on Kashmir in the international arena. "It is important to look at what the people want and how their lives can be made better," he said according to The Indian Express.
Speaking about the per capital allocation for the UT from the Union Budget, Sinha provided the following calculation.
“Whenever J&K is spoken about, it is said it is backward and underdeveloped. It’s important to understand J&K in the right context. J&K has a population of 1.25-1.30 crore. Last year the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir was Rs 1.10 lakh crore. Now let’s take Bihar and UP, also considered backward. Against a population of around 12 crore, Bihar has a budget of Rs 2.18 lakh crore. UP has a population of 23 crore and a budget of Rs 5.5 lakh crore. So per capita allocation in Jammu and Kashmir is nine to ten times of these states. And this has been the case since independence,” Sinha said.
He said that the mentality that students, who have done M Tech, are awaiting governments jobs need to change. Speaking about the administration's work in creating self-employment, he said, “There are 4,295 panchayats. We estimated there would be 10,000 candidates. But it has gone up to 20,000. Everyone got a loan of Rs 10 lakh. Now we have a target of 50,000 candidates for this year." He acknowledged that the state had to be better at being able to provide power to its people throughout the day.
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