New Delhi: At a rally in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the day was not far when assembly elections would be held in the Union territory and its statehood would be restored.
The BJP leader, who is seeking a third term in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, said he had received a grand welcome in the Valley in 1992 during the ‘Ekta Yatra’.”
“Our mission, at that time, was to hoist the ‘Tiranga’ at Kashmir’s Lal Chowk. In 2014, I gave you a guarantee to provide relief from what you have faced. Modi fulfilled that guarantee. This is the first time when terrorism, separatism, stone pelting, cross-border firing and bandhs are no longer issues in elections,” he added.
“Modi thinks big, and what you have seen so far is just the trailer. I have to get busy creating a fresh and shining picture of the new Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said a “peaceful day” in the erstwhile state would have made headlines in newspapers in the past. “That situation has changed in Jammu and Kashmir. Vikas bhi ho raha hai, vishvaas bhi badh raha hai (progress and trust are both on the rise). This election is not just to elect a member of Parliament but to elect a strong government. You all know what a strong government can do,” he said.
The former state was split into two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in 2019 and brought under central rule after Parliament scrapped Article 370.
Jammu and Kashmir has been without an Assembly for over five years now, with the last elections taking place in December 2014. The upcoming general polls will be the first major election in the state after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, apart from 2020 district development polls.
The Election Commission had last month said that the Assembly elections would be held “right after” the Lok Sabha polls, after the Supreme Court gave the poll body a deadline of 30 September, 2024.
“After decades, elections are happening in Jammu and Kashmir without fear of terrorism and threat of cross-border firing,” Modi told Udhampur crowd, challenging the Opposition, especially the Congress, to bring back Article 370 which gave special status to the former state.
“Please trust me, I will get rid of the problems that have plagued Jammu and Kashmir for the past 60 years,” Modi said.
The PM tore into the Congress-led Opposition alliance, INDIA, of which local parties the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are key constituents.
“The Congress and INDI alliance do not care about the sentiments of the majority of the people in the country. They enjoy playing with them instead… Congress says Ram Mandir is an election issue for the BJP. I want to tell you that Ram Mandir was never an election issue, nor will it ever be. The struggle for Ram temple was going on even before the birth of the BJP… When foreign invaders destroyed our temples, the people of India fought to save their religious places. The leaders of Congress and its allies lived in big bungalows but when it came to improving the tent of Ram Lalla, they turned their backs.”
Modi said the Congress, NC and PDP wanted to take J&K back to the old days. “No one has caused as much damage to Jammu and Kashmir as these family-run parties. Here the political party is of the family, by the family and for the family,” he said.
NC leader Omar Abdullah scoffed at Modi for taking credit for bringing back elections to the former state, adding. “He has not done a favour for the state. It was the verdict of the Supreme Court. It would have been a favour if the PM had conducted elections before the top court’s ruling. It is now a compulsion for him.”
Abdullah said it was never clear why J&K’s statehood was taken away in the first place. “What kind of justice is that? They could not even explain that decision properly to the Supreme Court,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir’s five seats — Udhampur, Jammu, Anantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar and Baramulla — will go to polls from 19 April to 20 May.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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