At 88 years of age, former Sadr-e- Riyasat and veteran Congress leader, Dr Karan Singh, is aggressively campaigning in support of his elder son Vikramaditya Singh, contesting against sitting Member of Parliament and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur- Doda Parliamentary constituency.
In the last few days, Dr Karan Singh has addressed more than one dozen election meetings across his hilly parliamentary constituency. He himself represented the same seat for four terms stretching from 1967 to 1980.
Wherever Dr Karan Singh goes to address public meetings, he strikes an emotional chord with the voters by telling them their grand parents had a unique bond with the Royal Dogra family and now, he is introducing his son to them to carry forward the relationship and legacy. In his speeches, Dr Singh is also raking up the issue of ‘Dogra pride’ and warns the electorate not to fall prey to the hands of those who are exploiting the sentiments of common people in the name of restoring pride of Dogras.
Due to his age, Dr Singh prefer addressing short meetings and delivering crisp messages to the electorate to strengthen the hands of the congress party to evict sitting BJP MP.
Commenting on the performance of the Narendra Modi government, Dr Karan Singh says, Modi made several tall promises during 2014 Lok Sabha polls but he failed to deliver. He failed to creat more jobs for the youth, penalised common masses by going ahead with demonetisation and failed to prevent escape of Nirav and Lalit Modi after they duped several banks.
Referring to ‘surgical’ strike inside Pakistan in the wake of Pulwama terror attack Dr Singh is repeatedly questioning the failure of the Government as it failed to prevent the attack. He is also posing some tough questions for the union government to answer in his campaign meetings. “Why no inquiry has been ordered till date to ascertain the security lapses which led to the Pulwama attack in which 40 brave CRPF men had to sacrifice their lives”.
On its part, BJP is also countering the campaign of the congress candidate and asking some ‘uncomforting’ questions to the members of the Royal Dogra family.
BJP is making passionate appeals to the people to not to fall prey to their emotional exploitation in the name of Dogra legacy. BJP spokesman Brig Anil Gupta said, “they need to be made answerable for their acts and omissions leading to the near extinct of Dogra heritage in the state.
Brig Anil Gupta said, “If anybody is responsible for hurting Dogra pride and legacy, it is the last scion of Dogra dynasty who is now trying to gain sympathy by distorting the historical facts”.