Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asserted that the DDC polls in Jammu and Kashmir have written a new history in the region, saying the transparent election process and enthusiastic participation of voters to say it is a “moment of pride” for India.

Taking a hit at the Congress yet again, he said that the party was offering him lessons of democracy, while “not carrying out panchayat and municipal polls” in Puducherry, a Union Territory where the Opposition is in power.

The Prime Minister was speaking at an event where he launched a scheme via video-conference to extend the benefits of Ayushman Bharat to all residents of the union territory.

Attacking the Congress without naming it, he said some people in Delhi offer him lessons in democracy day in and day out, and use “abuses” for him, but they have not organised the panchayat polls in Puducherry despite a Supreme Court order.

Modi noted that the three-tier panchayat polls were carried out in Jammu and Kashmir in over a year after it became a union territory.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a recent attack on the PM over the farmers’ protest against the agri laws, had said that there is no democracy in India.

“The District Development Council (DDC) polls in Jammu and Kashmir have seen people winning due to their work and not names,” the Prime Minister said.

The Centre has undertaken all-round development of Jammu and Kashmir, he added.

Modi said a big mistake of those who were in power for decades in the country was to ignore the development of border regions, including Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, but his government has rectified this.