Ghulam Nabi Azad questions the government's move over removal of Article 370

New Delhi: Drawing comparison on various performance parameters between erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state and the model state of Gujarat, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday once again questioned the government's move over removal of Article 370 and downgrading the state into two Union Territories (UTs).

In his speech on the debate in the Rajya Sabha on Motion of Thanks to the President's joint address, the senior Congress leader dismissed the arguments made by the government strip the hill state of its special status.

Citing data of the RBI and the central government, Azad said that J&K outscored Gujarat on multiple parameters such as employment, poverty, girl education and average attendance of children in schools.

He said, "As per RBI Handbook of 2019, the unemployment rate in J&K was 5.3 percent while the all India average in the same period was 6.1 percent. The poverty ratio in the state was 10.4 percent while the All India ratio was 21.9 percent." Azad noted that these were the key arguments for the abrogation of Article 370.

The former Minister then went on comparing various indicators of the erstwhile J&K and Gujarat. He said, "Those who attended the 11th and 12th class in 2015-16 in J&K was 58.6 percent. The same for Gujarat, a model state, was 43 percent. All India figure was 56 percent. Girls with over 15 years of age who attended school for 8 years in case of J&K was 87 percent in comparison to 75 percent in J&K."

Azad also took on the government for NRC in the North East saying the move had left the entire region burning.

"No one is with you in the Northeast. You have used trickery and deceit. People in the region are not with your ideology," he said.