Jammu & Kashmir's former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Kavinder Gupta has said that his party's aim to remove Article 370 has resulted in the total integration of J&K and has also improved the overall situation.
In an exclusive interview with IANS, the former Deputy Chief Minister said that ever since the early days of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh till the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party, J&K's welfare and integration have always been an integral part of the party's core agenda.
Syama Prasad Mookherjee, the founder and President of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, had sacrificed his life to lead the movement opposing Article 370, he said.
The BJP has fought a long battle for turning the idea of 'Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan ( One Constitution, One Flag, One Prime Minister)' into reality across the country, he added.
The BJP leader said the first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the first Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah had challenged the idea of 'One Constitution, One Flag, One Prime Minister.
"This is the reason why the problems of separatism, terrorism, corruption, family rule and peddling the pro-Pakistan narrative have been plaguing Jammu and Kashmir. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was given stepmotherly treatment by whichever government came to power here, which blackmailed the then-weak governments ruling at the Centre. Bharatiya Janata Party's only aim was that whenever we have an absolute majority at the Centre, we will abolish Article 370," Gupta said.
He said, “We saw that five lakh Hindus were displaced from Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from this, the hoisting of Pakistani flags, the spread of terrorism, the destruction of temples, and anti-national slogans emanating from mosques had become a usual routine. Those parties promoting a certain political narrative did not want other parties to exist here. But now after the abrogation of Article 370, there is a new era of tourism and development which exists."
"Now is not the time of terrorism but of tourism. People have rejected those political parties practising votebank politics as we saw here in the larger voter turnout during the recent Lok Sabha elections. Stone pelting has come to a halt, schools remain open the whole year. Previous governments adopted a discriminatory policy towards Jammu and Ladakh. Kashmir-centric governments discriminated against the Jammu region."
"Today if AIIMS, Central University, and Ring Roads are constructed both in Jammu as well as Kashmir, train connectivity has reached Kashmir now. There is a lot of enthusiasm among the youth here who are interested in playing sports and people are coming here in large numbers thereby promoting tourism. Earlier, the youth were hired for pelting stones at the security forces, the Government of India has rectified this mistake, but this difference is only visible after August 5, 2019."
He said, "Today's government is working with a zero-tolerance policy, the result of which is that the situation in J&K has improved. But Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is slowly and gradually spreading in Jammu."
The former Deputy Chief Minister added, "The enemy sometimes succeeds in its intentions, but that does not mean that we should raise questions at our Armed forces. The government is taking more punitive measures against terrorists and is changing its strategy. The enemies of the nation will be neutralised soon."
He said that the people of the country have also seen those times when bodies were piled up. "People from a specific community were thrown out of buses and killed. Some people are sitting in the government and departments who live on this country's soil and work for the enemy country. There is a need to identify such people and the government is working on this strictly."
Asked about the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the former Deputy Chief Minister said, "The elections will take place soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have talked about elections with utmost responsibility on the floor of Parliament. We hope that we will form a democratically-elected government in September or October this year."
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