Madhav to Mainstream: ‘Stop Mourning, Article 370 Has Gone’

JAMMU – BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday said state forces are fully geared to foil “Pakistan’s design to create trouble” in Kashmir and deal with militants who are trying to destroy Kashmiriyat by targeting outsiders.

Defending the scrapping of Article 370, Madhav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “well thought-out” decision will not be revoked as it has been done for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have remained deprived of their various rights for the past 70 years under the garb of this constitutional provision.

“Pakistan is continuing its efforts to create unrest in the valley but our security forces will frustrate all its attempts,” the BJP leader told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by his party on “accession day” here.

Asked about frequent cross-border firing, he said necessary security arrangements are in place to scuttle its attempts to foment trouble in the valley.

Addressing the seminar, he said the militants are destroying the “beauty of Kashmiriyat” by targeting traders and truckers from outside the state but security forces will not allow such activities and will deal with them strictly.

“The militants are trying to scare away and frighten businessmen who have come to Jammu and Kashmir for trade. They are only harming the interests of the people of Kashmir and destroying Kashmiriyat,” he said, responding to a question about recent attacks on non-local truckers and traders in south Kashmir.

In the last 11 days, five non-Kashmiris, including an apple trader and three truck drivers who were transporting apples were killed in south Kashmir.

Greeting the people of Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of Diwali festival, he said this will be the first Diwali after abrogation of Article 370 which led to the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

“It was a well thought-out decision taken by the BJP under the leadership of Modi. The decision was not based on political consideration or ideological basis but it was meant to restore various rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who were deprived of political, fundamental and democratic rights besides the right to dignity over the last seven decades,” he said.

He said the people who are in mourning about the scrapping of special status would not achieve anything because “this article will not make a come back”.

“It was a historic blunder committed by former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in collusion with (National Conference founder) Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. It was a political conspiracy to deprive ordinary people of their rights,” Madhav said.

Defending the BJP for taking scrapping the article allegedly without taking people into confidence, he said the article itself was implemented unconstitutionally and so was the amendments made it by the Congress over the past seven decades.

“They have no right to question us on the manner of taking the decision,” he said, accusing the other mainstream political parties of misusing the provision to empower themselves instead of the locals.

He also congratulated people over the successful Block Development Council (BDC) elections, and said “this is the biggest achievement of the BJP in form of restoring e democracy in the state”.

The BJP leader also lashed out at politicians for exploiting Kashmiriyat over the years and said “Kashmiriyat and Hindustaniyat are the same which teaches equality, living in harmony and respecting everyone irrespective of creed, colour, cast and religion.”

“Driving away lakhs of Kashmiri pandits from their homes is not Kashmiriyat and so are the attacks on traders from outside the state,” he said.

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