Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday pledged to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and hold Assembly elections — a rare promise betraying nervousness as the government battles fatigue with babudom in its Jammu bastion.
Modi also dared the INDIA bloc to restore Article 370 if it won the election, while expressing pride at having “buried” the provision, which granted special status to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, as well as its “ruins”.
“The time is not far when Assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir will get the status of statehood. You will be able to share your dreams with your MLA and your ministers,” Modi said at a rally in Udhampur, Jammu.
In 2019, the Prime Minister had promised to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, speaking just two days after the special status was abolished. He is believed to have repeated the promise at a closed-door all-party meeting with politicians from the Union Territory in 2021.
Union home minister Amit Shah has made several public announcements relating to Assembly elections and statehood, but there has been no progress on the ground. The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to hold Assembly elections in the Union Territory by September 30 this year.
The BJP is battling anger in the two parliamentary seats in Jammu — where the majority had cheered the scrapping of the special status — over a range of issues including the absence of a democratic space.
Modi on Friday justified the scrapping of the special status and threw a challenge to the INDIA grouping. “For power, they (the Congress and the National Conference) created such a big wall — Article 370 — that people in Jammu and Kashmir could not see outside and outsiders could not see towards Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“With your blessing, Modi broke the wall of 370. Not just that, I buried its ruins as well. I challenge any political party, particularly the Congress, let them announce they would bring back Article 370. The country will not like to see their faces.”
The Prime Minister claimed Jammu and Kashmir had seen lots of development but the biggest thing was the “change of heart” as people had moved from disappointments towards hope.
“In the last 10 years, we have cracked down on terrorism and corruption in the region. In the next five years, we will take this region to new heights of development and progress,” he said.
Modi raked up emotive issues before the Udhampur crowd, invoking Vaishno Devi and hitting out at the Congress for missing out on the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir.
“Had I not even come, I knew that my connection with Jammu and Kashmir was so deep they would do for me more than I do (for myself),” he said.
“But I have come to sit at the feet of Maa Vaishno Devi and for your darshan.”
The Vaishno Devi shrine is in adjoining Reasi district. He did not visit the shrine.
He slammed the INDIA partners for their alleged “Mughal mindset” and accused them of hurting the sentiments of Hindus.
Modi’s jab came days after a video of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav eating “non-veg food” went viral.
“People of the Congress and INDI alliance do not care about the majority of the country’s population. They enjoy playing with people’s emotions. These people were making mutton at the home of a convicted criminal during the month of Sawan, and not only that, they were taunting the people of the country by making a video of it,” he said.