The withdrawal of Article 370 was an instrument of change in Jammu and Kashmir, said national working president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) J.P. Nadda on Monday, adding that the move was possible only due to the political will of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the strategy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Kicking off the party’s campaign in Pune and western Maharashtra, Mr. Nadda hit out at the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) saying they were parties centred round a particular political family or dynasty.
“With the removal of Article 370, tribals residing in the Poonch-Rajouri area like the Gujjars, who had hitherto no reservation, can now participate in mainstream politics. The whole Ladakh area is tribal but there was no reserved seat for a Gujjar or a Bakarwal in the Vidhan Sabha or Lok Sabha. But this has now changed after we scrapped Article 370,” he said, addressing a gathering of BJP workers.
He further said that 104 vital laws passed by the Parliament — be it the SC/ST Act or the POCSO Act to prevent violence against children — that was not previously applicable to Jammu & Kashmir, would now be in force there.
“Children of Gujjars and Bakarwals could not hitherto participate in any elections as there was no reserved seat. People who came from West Pakistan who settled in Jammu and Kashmir could not even participate in council elections, forget Assembly or general elections. But that will all change with the withdrawal of Article 370… Now, women can now buy real estate and transfer property to their children, even if they get married to a non-resident of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding that with the removal of Article 370, Dalits would now be able the right to join the judicial and administrative services.
Commenting on the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls, Mr. Nadda said that the BJP had top-class leadership and a programme for the future while the opposition’s leaders were either languishing in jail or were out on bail.
“Apart from the Communist party, the BJP was the only party which was truly democratic and in which a grassroots worker could reach to the top. In the BJP, a person from a humble background without powerful political or dynastic connections had the opportunity for self-advancement that most regional parties were run by families,” he said.
“Today, the party workers, who are charged up to fight the polls have an inspirational leader in the form of Mr. Modi who has showed that India has established herself on the world stage. We have a hierarchy of leadership at every level, right from [Chief Minister] Devendra Fadnavis in the State right down to capable leaders at the Zilla level. In contrast, the opposition’s leaders were doing the rounds of the Enforcement Directorate or were putting up appearances in front of the Central Bureau of Investigation and other probe agencies like the NIA,” he said.
Stating that BJP had workers who were competent in taking the party’s message to the masses, he said the party membership had surged to a record 17 crore from 11 crore in a mere 54 days.
“In these 54 days, our workers not only participated in relief operations in the floods that hit western Maharashtra, but also in the Mahajanadesh Yatra,” Mr. Nadda said, praising the workers’ efforts towards building the BJP in western Maharashtra, once the erstwhile bastion of the NCP and the Congress.
Earlier, Mr. Nadda held closed-door meetings with party workers to chalk out strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls.
