Angry sarpanches walk out of Rahul Gandhi's meeting in J&K

Panchayat leaders in Jammu and Kashmir walked out of a meeting with Rahul Gandhi today to express their displeasure over unfulfilled promises. The Congress leader faced protests, slogans and open resentment at a meeting with panchayat members in Srinagar.

Recently, several panchayat leaders were gunned down by militant groups and the government is yet to provide them with proper security.

The panchayat members said that they were unhappy with the Congress leader as they were not given anything that was promised to them earlier. They said that Gandhi spoke to them about more empowerment for the panchayat, but didn’t commit to changes in the Panchayat Act that would allow this.

Talking to mediapersons after the fiasco, Gandhi said, “I am nobody to make the changes and amendments, it is for the people of Kashmir to decide.”

Gandhi also skirted questions on the walkout by the panchayat leaders, but reiterated that he was in Jammu and Kashmir “to build bridges”. “Hopefully we will be able to build another tunnel… the panchayats are not getting the rights they are entitled to,” said Rahul.

Earlier, at a meet in Delhi with a sarpanch delegation from Srinagar, Rahul had earlier said that the state government needed to provide greater security to the local village body leaders.