Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that terrorism was on its last legs in Jammu & Kashmir as he held his first rally in the UT’s election campaign and launched an all-out attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rivals, accusing them of working for the interests of their families.
Addressing a gathering in the Doda district of Jammu, Modi said that terrorism was pushed to the fringes in J&K after the BJP came to power at the Centre.
“Terrorism is breathing its last in Jammu & Kashmir. There was a time when shops used to close down at sunset . The situation was such that the Congress home minister was afraid of visiting Lal Chowk,” he said.
The PM’s statement was an allusion to Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde saying that he was scared while visiting the Valley during his ministerial stint.
“The youths of J&K used to face the brunt of terrorism. The positive change witnessed in the past 10 years is nothing less than a dream. The stones that were pelted at forces are now used to create a new Jammu & Kashmir,” the PM added during his 45-minute speech.
Modi’s remarks come against the backdrop of a series of gunfights between forces and terrorists in J&K, particularly in Jammu, which have raised concerns over the erstwhile peaceful region emerging as a new hub of violence in the restive UT. On Friday, two soldiers were killed in a terror strike roughly 110 km from the venue of PM’s rally. A day later, forces killed three terrorists in the Baramulla district of Kashmir.
National Conference (NC) vice president and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah rebutted Modi, saying that the J&K security situation had deteriorated in the last 10 years.
“Two Army personnel were killed in an attack [on Friday], and an encounter is currently going on in North Kashmir. It’s been five years since the abrogation of Article 370, and yet we still hear about encounters,” he said.
J&K’s first assembly elections in a decade are set to be held in three phases, on September 18 and 25, and October 1, with security concerns being one of the major poll planks. Of the UT’s 90 seats, eight constituencies spread across the three districts of Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban in Jammu and 16 in the south Kashmir districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, and Kulgam will vote in the first phase.
Targeting the Congress, its alliance partner NC, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the PM said that they “prepared the necessary ground for separatism and terrorism” in J&K. He said that the three political parties were a mere representation of three families—Gandhis, Abdullahs, and Muftis—and worked to only fulfill “dynastic ambitions”.
“What these three families have done to you is no less than a sin. They encouraged separatism and made J&K fertile ground for terrorism. The enemies of the nation exploited the situation to their advantage. Because of their sins, thousands of children were killed here,” he said.
Modi said that the opposition parties wanted to restore Article 370, which was revoked by the Centre five years ago.
“Congress, PDP, and NC want to restore Article 370. If their manifestos are implemented, children will again have stones in their hands, and there will be strikes,” he said.
Modi said that the three parties kept a stranglehold on power and used it to accomplish their ulterior motives. “This beautiful region was rendered hollow by dynastic politics. The parties that you trusted didn’t bother about your children. They only promoted their own children. While youth here bore the maximum brunt of terrorism, these dynastic parties kept enjoying the best of both worlds. They never allowed new leadership to evolve,” he said.
Countering the PM, Omar said he was using the “dynastic politics rhetoric” to divert attention from the real issues.
“When the BJP needed help from these families [Abdullahs and Muftis], we were not blamed for the destruction of J&K. They had no issues with the PDP when they were in alliance with them. During elections, they find everything wrong with us. Tomorrow, if the BJP falls short of numbers and the PDP steps in to help, they’ll again find no fault with the PDP,” he said.
Omar served as a Union minister of state from 2001-2002 during the Prime Ministership of BJP stalwart Atal Bihar Vajpayee. In the 2014 assembly elections, the PDP emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats and formed an alliance of ideological extremes with the BJP, which had 25 seats. But the coalition collapsed early in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support and Governor’s Rule was imposed in June.
In his address, the PM said that unlike their rivals, the BJP was focused on carving out a young leadership in J&K. “Panchayat elections had not taken place since 2000, and Block Development Council and District Development Council polls had never taken place… After 2014, I tried to bring forth the young leadership, holding panchayat polls in 2018, BDC elections in 2019, and DDC in 2020. The reason for holding these elections was to take democracy to the grassroots,” Modi said. Later in the day, the PM addressed a rally in Haryana ahead of the October 5 poll and cautioned the people against falling for Congress’s false promises.
The upcoming electoral exercise will be the first assembly polls in the region since its special status and statehood were scrapped five years ago and are likely to be the last step before the UT’s statehood is restored.
During his speech, Modi said the BJP was committed to bringing back J&K’s statehood. “Full statehood will be given to J&K by the BJP government, but you (people of J&K) have to be cautious of those who, for their vested interests, have been snatching your rights for decades,” he said.
The J&K unit of Congress rejected PM’s charges and said that he was making empty promises.
“The BJP is a master at providing lip service, which has been aptly witnessed in the last 10 years throughout the country, including in Jammu and Kashmir. After 10 years of big promises, speeches, and lies, the country is facing an unprecedented unemployment and inflation crisis,” Raman Bhalla, the working president of the Congress’s J&K unit, said.
