Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 15: The BJP’s historic victory under the leadership of Narendra Modi in the general elections in May 2014 was taken by the people of Jammu region to mean the return of hope and joy. The elevation of Narendra Modi to the office of Prime Minister was taken to mean by the people of Jammu region the surest pledge that their night of discontent and despair would soon draw to its close and they would obtain what they deserved in the polity and economy as part and parcel of the State.
This was stated here today by the AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC) leaders, including its chairman Abhinav Sharma and committee members like Senior advocates Bhupinder Singh Slathia and Sardar Surinder Singh, general secretary, CCI, Jammu, Arun Gupta, retd Sessions Judge Pavitar Singh, president Shri Amar Kshatriya Rajput Sabha, Narain Singh, general secretary Passenger Transport Welfare Association, Vijay Kumar Sharma, K B Jandial ex member PSC, Prof Hari Om and Dr C L Gupta while addressing a joint press conference here today.
Elaborating their point, the ACC members claimed that the people of Jammu region, like their counterparts in the rest of the country, had voted more for Narendra Modi than for the BJP. It was what Narendra Modi said on December 1, 2013 during the mammoth Lalkar Rally at MAM Stadium that had inspired and motivated the people of Jammu region to vote overwhelmingly for the BJP, they said, adding that the BJP would not have won three Lok Sabha seats and 25 Assembly seats from Jammu region and got 32.5 per cent of the total popular votes polled in the State, had Narendra Modi not campaigned in the State.
It was his inspiring speech on the nature of polity in Jammu & Kashmir and his commitment that the BJP, if voted to power, would end the misrule in the State and the rest of the country and hand down a Government that would end the domination and hegemony of one region over the other two regions and empower the neglected regions and marginalized sections of society, including the daughters of the State, that motivated the people of the region to swing solidly behind the BJP, they asserted. The BJP is in power in the State not because the people wanted but because they considered Narendra Modi the BJP and the BJP Narendra Modi, they further said, adding that the people of Jammu region had never pinned faith in the local BJP leadership because it had from time to time flirted with Kashmiri parties like the NC and the PDP and bartered the interests of people of Jammu region for some petty gains.
It was the BJP which voted for the anti-Jammu amendment in 2002 that banned delimitation of Assembly Constituencies for more than three decades. It was the BJP which opposed the legislation in 1998 seeking establishment of Mata Vaishno Devi University and Agriculture University in Jammu, the ACC members lamented, adding. The whole credit for the remarkable victory of the BJP in the state goes to Narendra Modi and not to the local uninspiring, weak kneed and non-committed local BJP leadership, they said, and added that they still have full faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister will surely appreciate the Jammu mandate and its nature. He will not let down the people of Jammu region, they said.
“We earnestly hope and sincerely believe that Prime Minister Modi will announce an AIIMS for Jammu during his visit to the City of Temples on July 17 and direct the BJP Ministers in the coalition Government in the State to assert their position and authority so that the State Cabinet adopts and implements pro-people and State-centric policies and Jammu region and Ladakh get their due share in the governance of the State. The people of Jammu region gave mandate to Narendra Modi and it is the most appropriate occasion to reciprocate the faith they reposed in his leadership. Nothing would be more appreciable then that the Prime Minister makes an announcement in Jammu on July 17 that Jammu will get an AIIMS as promised, they said.
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