‘Protagonists of Art 370 were its greatest abusers’
Avtar Bhat
PATNITOP, July 7 : Criticising those who had tried to hoodwink the public opinion that sky will fall if the Articles 370 and 35 -A were abrogated in J&K, Union Minister and BJP National Executive Member, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the prophets of doom proved totally wrong in Kashmir as the people all over J&K showed their happiness and pleasure over the annulling of controversial Article which had been a great impediment in erstwhile State’s progress and development.
Addressing the party’s workshop here today, Dr Jitendra Singh without naming the Kashmir centric parties said that they had propagated that there will be a big volcano, no one will be left to take Indian Flag in his or her hand and youth from Punjab will usurp the jobs in J&K, proved totally wrong. Click here to watch video
He said that the protagonists of Article 370 were its greatest abusers and accused the Kashmir-centric political parties like National Conference (NC) and PDP for selectively raising the bogey of Article 370 when it suited them, but conveniently ignoring it by their convenience.
Dr Jitendra Singh said people hoisted Tricolour everywhere and no one from Punjab came to capture the jobs in J&K as predicted by Prophets of doom. He said it was NC which misused the 370 most for its advantage and befooled the people of J&K. J&K was first State in the country when during Dr Farooq Abdullah’s rule POTA was implemented in the erstwhile State while now his party is misleading the public opinion by saying the Central laws are not suitable for J&K.
Addressing the BJP Workshop on the topic of “Abrogation of Article 370”, Dr Jitendra Singh cited striking examples to expose hypocrisy and duplicity of some of the leaders with regard to Article 370. He recalled that in 1975, when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country and brought in Constitutional Amendment to extend the term of Lok Sabha and State Assembly from five years to six years, the then Chief Minister of J&K Sheikh Abdullah immediately adopted this amendment without caring for Article 370 but when the same amendment was reversed by Morarji Desai after becoming Prime Minister in 1977 and the term of Lok Sabha as well as State Assembly was reverted back to five years, in J&K Sheikh Abdullah used the alibi of Article 370 and special status to ensure that the Assembly term was not reverted back to five years and this anomaly also got corrected only after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
Similarly, Dr Jitendra Singh cited examples to substantiate how certain laws were immediately picked up by the NC-Congress Government, notwithstanding Article 370, while others were not applied for extraneous considerations. For example, he said, the National Conference leaders, raise a lot of hue and cry over the alleged misuse of Centre’s Anti-Terrorism laws against the people of Kashmir but conveniently forget that it was Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister who was the first to implement POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act ) in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
Dr Jitendra Singh urged the historians and analysts to find out why Central laws like Child Marriage Act, POCSO (Protection of Child from Sexual Offences) or Anti-Dowry Act were not implemented under the garb of Article 370. The NC and Congress Governments constantly swear by human rights but violated human rights of the society by not implementing these acts. Was this motivated by the tendency to appease certain sections of society for vote bank dividends under the garb of Article 370, he asked.
Abrogation of Article 370, said Dr Jitendra Singh, led to transformation at three levels, Constitutional, administrational and developmental. He said, not only the pace of projects was increased but many of the projects like “Shapur-Kandi” and “Rattle Power Project”, which had been stalled by earlier Governments got revived after abrogation of Article 370 and Jammu & Kashmir turning into a Union Territory.
Contrary to the predictions made by “prophets of doom” who said that there would be bloodbath, if Article 370 was removed, Dr Jitendra Singh cited figures to state that the number of stone pelting incidents reduced from 2009 in 2019 to 173 in 2021 and only five in the first quarter of current year 2022. The incidents of terrorist violence were 417 in 2008 and 255 in 2019 but reduced to 229 in 2021 and 31 in the current year of 2022. On the development front, he said, for example, the pace of road construction increased from 25321 Kilometres to 41141 Kilometres and average macamadisation of road per day increased nearly four times in the last three years, while within three years, Jammu & Kashmir was ranked number four in the country for PMGSY road construction and district Udhampur was ranked one in PMGSY road construction.
Referring to way forward, Dr Jitendra Singh quoted Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to invoke Amrit Mahotsava and said in the next 25 years, Jammu & Kashmir with its vast unexplored potential and unexplored Startup potential has the opportunity to play an important role in building the future economy of India before the country reaches the world pedestal in 2047.
Dr Jitendra Singh called for greater awareness among people to make them realise the transformation that has happened after abrogation of Article 370 and also to motivate the youth to undertake Startup initiatives like their counterparts in other parts of the country.
Later, in reply to a question of media persons, Dr Jitendra Singh said BJP is 24x7x365 party and it is always ready for elections whether Parliament, Assembly, local bodies or Panchayats. But the decision about holding of Assembly elections in J&K will be taken by Election Commission of India (ECI). The BJP worker has no problem as he is always ready for campaigning, he added.
In reply to a question that PAGD (People’s Alliance of Gupkar Declaration) has decided to fight elections jointly, Dr Jitendra Singh said BJP is sure to seek the people’s mandate easily whosoever will be in opposition “because we have faith and trust in the masses.”
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