The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) held its first ever public rally in Srinagar to kick-start campaign for the upcoming parliamentary polls.
Though there were a couple of hundred BJP supporters in attendance,the rally holds significance because Srinagar is considered to be thestronghold of separatists.
The rally was held amid a massive ongoing crackdown onseparatist elements across Kashmir. Scores of people have been detained.
This was also the first rally by any political party sincethe Election Commission of India announced the seven-phased Lok Sabha pollsearlier this month.
The speakers at the rally, including BJP’s in-charge forJ&K Avinash Rai Khanna stayed clear of any political speech.
Instead, their focus was on the “developmental programs”launched by the Modi-led government in the state for the past five years.
“It was Modi ji who announced Rs 80,000 crore developmentalpackage for the state. Has it happened ever in the past?” Khanna asked thesupporters who shouted “Modi, Modi”.
The party was expecting around 5000 BJP workers andsupporters to turn out for the event, said a source. Most of the chairs at thevenue were empty, so the organisers simply removed chairs and stacked them behindback rows.
But Khanna praised those who had turned for the rally. “I’mtold that this place is called Sher-e-Kashmir Park. Today, there are BJP flagshoisted all around in this park,” Khanna said.
Recalling the last parliament elections, the BJP leader saidthey had only secured 3000 votes. But, he said, during the last Assemblyelections the number of votes the party polled was 50,000.
“Today we have more than 2 lakh members in the Valley. Thisspeaks about the rise of our party in the BJP,” Khanna said.
Khanna said the party fought the last election in Modi’sname only.
“This time we will also highlight the work he has done. Inthe past five years we have done things the previous governments couldn’t do inthe last 60 years,” he said.
Commenting on NC president Farooq Abdullah’s statement thatthe Balakot strikes were done keeping Lok Sabha elections in mind, Khanna said,”Opposition parties across the country supported the move. It isunfortunate, that he says one thing in Kashmir, another in Jammu and somethingelse in Delhi.”
“This decision (airstrikes) was taken in the interest of the country and for the first time armywas given a free hand to decide the timing and nature of the retaliation. Thisis not an election issue. This is a concern of national security and thestrength of the nation.”
The senior BJP leader said that they want peace in thecountry because they believe that development is possible only when there ispeace. “We do not do politics on religion.”
Khanna said BJP also wanted Assembly elections to be heldsimultaneously with LS polls.
“But this was the election commission’s call. BJP has norole in this,” he said.
About the alliance with PDP, he said: “That government wasbased on a common minimum programme and we tried to make it work with fullsupport from the Centre. But human rights violations continued, a policeman waslynched, even journalists were not spared. We realized it was our moralresponsibility to withdraw from the government.”