Modi Govt’s decision will be in J&K’s interest: Ram Madhav

Accusing National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party of creating “war hysteria” in Jammu and Kashmir, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said that any decision on Article 35A by Modi-government would be in the interests of J&K and the country.

Addressing press conference here, Madhav, who oversees BJP’sJ&K affairs, said, “Centre launching a crusade against corruption inJ&K has unnerved the NC and PDP. Both these parties are creating a warhysteria to divert the attention from the ongoing drive.”   

   

He said that they are going to urge the Election Commissionof India to hold Assembly elections in the state before January next year. “Andwhen stage is set for the Assembly polls in the state, some regional partiesare creating war hysteria in the state by saying this and that will happen,” hesaid.

 In an apparentreference to PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Madhav said that “she is using suchlanguage and words like ‘barood say khelna (playing with the explosives) was tokeep herself politically relevant and to gain political mileage.”

“To gain something out of nothing, fear is being createdamong people by some regional parties. We are not going to be bogged down bystatements like barood say khelna etc and will instead take forward peace anddevelopment work going on in J&K,” he said. “The party (PDP) shouldintrospect as many senior leaders didn’t even attend its foundation daycelebrations.”

Asked whether Article 35 A was going to be scrapped, theBJP’s point man on J&K played safe and gave a guarded response: “Seewhatever decision will be taken by the Modi-government will be in the interestsof the state and the country. Some issues are in the court and they will bedecided there only. Our stand is clear on these issues.”

Madhav’s assertions comes at a time when speculations arerife in  Kashmir that New Delhi is goingto scrap the Article 35 A after 15 August. Article 35 A provides specialcitizenship rights to the residents of J&K and prevents outsiders frombuying land and other immoveable  propertyin the state.

About the arrival of 10,000 additional security forces tothe state, Madhav said that “there is no need to create an atmosphere ofdiscomfort for the people as such drives are a routine exercises. Securityforces coming here and going back is a continuous process and shouldn’t belinked with any political step,” he said. “For Amarnath Yatra, additionalforces were supposed to be deployed. They would go back and more would come. Soit is a continuous process.”

He said that some regional were resorting to rumourmongering and creating a sense of alienation and fear among people only to gainpolitical mileage. “It is because of the Centre’s decision to go tough againstthe corrupt and no matter how big a person involved in the corrupt practicewould be, action will follow in any case,” Madhav said.

 He said over the pastone year, security grid with the active support of Centre has managed tocontain the militancy. “Now the state and the security forces will go after theover ground workers. This issue is almost three-decade old and it’s not a oneday job to end militancy even though our mission is to wipe out not onlymilitants but militancy too from Kashmir soil,” he said.

On whether BJP was ready for Assembly elections, he saidthat “the party will contest on all 87 seats across the state. At the sametime, we would want to see youth, individuals and other independent candidatesto come forward and contest polls in Kashmir so that the state gets rid of thedynasty rule that has ruined J&K since decades. We want an independent forceto emerge against family rule in Kashmir,” he said. “Thousands of crores havebeen sent by New Delhi to J&K for developmental works so far, but all thatmoney has gone down the drain. There has been a rampant corruption in theState.”

He said BJP strongly advocates elections for blocks so thatthree-tier Panchayati Raj system evolves in the state. “There is a systemacross the country where there is block level, Gram level and district levelPanchayati Raj institutions for the development of villages and districts. TheBJP stands for same in the J&K,” Madhav said.

 He said that BJP isfast emerging as a best choice for the people, a full unit of Lok JanshaktiParty (LJP), Congress leaders and workers including some female, a large numberof youth from far off districts and leaders and activists from variouspolitical parties joined the party. “People with clean history of past, zeal towork for the development and peace are always welcome into the BJP fold,” hesaid.

Earlier, Madhav had welcomed the new entrants into the partyfold in a separate function at SKICC here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 × one =