PM Modi: Terrorism is breathing its last in J&K

He accused the NC, Congress and PDP of creating a breeding ground for terror that came in handy for the enemy — he was referring to Pakistan. He said these parties wanted to “keep their shops running’’ and, as a result, “thousand of children lost their lives because of their sins”.

Reminding the people of the days when terror was at its peak and there used to be an undeclared curfew after sunset, Modi said those were the days when even the Home Minister of the then Congress government at the Centre was scared of visiting Lal Chowk in Srinagar.

But due to the work done in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 10 years, he said, “terrorism is breathing its last in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Turning towards Shagun Parihar, BJP’s Kishtwar candidate whose father Ajit Parihar and uncle Dalip Parihar were killed by terrorists in 2018, Modi said, “Daughter Shagun is not just a candidate for us, but a living example of our determination to wipe out terrorism.’’

“The political powers you trusted did not bother about your children, they only promoted their own children,’’ Modi said, adding that they also did not promote a new leadership in J&K.

He said it was only after the formation of the BJP government at the Centre in 2014 that he tried to bring up a new leadership in J&K by holding the panchayat elections in 2018 and the Block Development Council and District Development Council polls in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

“Why were these polls held?’’ he said, adding “so that democracy reaches the grassroots and the youth come forward to take up reins of the decision-making process in J&K’’.

“Those doing dynastic politics were opposed to this attempt of mine,’’ he said, adding “we challenged their intentions and 30,000-35,000 youth entered politics after the local body elections and took the reins of J&K in their hands.’’ This has led to a new era of development in Jammu and Kashmir and the credit, he said, goes to the youth.

Pointing out that only the BJP government will give statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Modi asked people to guard against those depriving them of their rights.

Taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi without naming him, Modi said, “These people now keep a copy of the Constitution in their pockets only to hide their past misdeeds. Unhoney Babasaheb (B R Ambedkar) ke Constitution ki atma ko nocha hai (They have torn the spirit of Babasaheb’s Constitution).” He was referring to the denial of reservation to Scheduled Tribes, Paharis and OBCs, voting rights to West Pakistan refugees and people from Gorkha and Valmiki communities. He said such laws were brought that they made people strangers in their own land.

Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, which form part of the Chenab Valley region of Jammu province, are going to polls along with some constituencies in South Kashmir in the first phase of the Assembly elections on September 18.

The BJP hopes to repeat its 2014 performance in the Chenab Valley region where it won four of the six Assembly constituencies,  barring Inderwal and Banihal.

Post the 2022 delimitation of Assembly constituencies, two new constituencies – Doda West and Padder-Nagseni – have been carved out in Doda and Kishtwar districts, raising the total number of Assembly constituencies in the Chenab Valley region to eight. The other six are Doda, Bhaderwah, Inderwal, Kishtwar, Ramban and Banihal.