‘No alliance with PDP’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 2: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary and party’s pointman on Jammu and Kashmir, Ram Madhav said today that Articles 35-A and 370 were being used as fodder by some Kashmir based leaders to fuel separatism in the Kashmir valley and called for dealing with such leaders, who were trying to survive on separatist narrative.
Madhav, however, remained non-committal on conduct of simultaneous elections to the Legislative Assembly along with Lok Sabha in Jammu and Kashmir but said it was up to the Election Commission of India to take a final decision.
Speaking at India Today’s conclave, Madhav said Article 35A and 370 were only an issue in the Kashmir valley, which is only one part of Jammu and Kashmir and not rest of the State.
“This is because of the leadership. The leaders in Kashmir were trying to survive on separatist narrative. The problem lies not with the people but with the leaders. We have to deal with them (the leaders),” he said.
Asserting that the issue of Article 35-A was before the Supreme Court, the BJP pointman on J&K said, if the Supreme Court holds the Article illegal, it will go. On Article 370, he said, then Prime Minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru had himself stated that it was a temporary and transit provision.
“We don’t favour continuation of Article 370, which generates separatist mindset in the Valley,” Madhav said.
He said the recent air raids deep inside Pakistan leading to killing of a number of militants have shown that India won’t remain mute spectator to militant attacks or will end the matter by giving dossier after dossier to Pakistan.
Madhav said normalcy has been restored to large parts of the State and militancy was confined to South Kashmir and few other areas.
“This was the major achievement of Narendra Modi Government that incidents of stone pelting have ended. Large parts of the State including the Valley were normal. Problem was now confined to only few areas including South Kashmir,” he said, adding large number of militants have been neutralized and over ground network of the militants has been destroyed.
Side by side, the BJP leader said, the Government has initiated good developmental works in all parts of the State and recently separate division has been created for Ladakh.
Madhav said they were keen that at least the Parliamentary elections should be held in Jammu and Kashmir along with other parts of the country.
It may be mentioned that the Election Commission of India team has been visiting Jammu and Kashmir on April 4 and 5 for ground assessment of the situation to take final decision on whether Assembly elections will be held along with the general elections or deferred in view of security situation.
The BJP leader said the problem of turnout in the elections was confined to only some areas including South Kashmir while some parts of North Kashmir including Baramulla and Kupwara have reported good turnout.
Madhav ruled out any kind of electoral alliance with the PDP.
He quoted PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s statement in the Legislative Assembly: “The people of Kashmir should know that whatever they get, they will get from India. This has been explained to them time and again and they too know this very well”.
However, he said, patriotism of majority of common Kashmiri people shouldn’t be subjected to question time and again as millions of Kashmiris are Indian by heart. They feel protected, secured and honoured in India, he added.
“We can’t dub all Kashmiris as anti-nationals or thieves,” Madhav said and mentioned recent statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the issue was with Kashmir and not ordinary Kashmiris.
Madhav recalled that the Bharatiya Janata Party had left the Government with People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the interest of the country and it never tried to form the Government during Governor or President’s rule.
“We had no role in any Government formation during Governor and President’s rule,” he added.
He condemned violence against Kashmir students in some States in the aftermath of Pulwama terror attack.
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