Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah were expected to devise a strategy to settle the things in the Kashmir valley before or immediately after party’s two-day National Executive meeting in Bhubaneswar (Odisha ) on April 15 and 16 amid reports that both of them were already in touch with each other.
“The Prime Minister and the BJP president have received inputs from various quarters about efforts to foment large-scale trouble in the Kashmir valley this summer, which was evident from killing of eight civilians on the day of polling for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on April 9,” highly placed sources told the Excelsior, saying performance of the PDP-BJP Government headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti including performance of the BJP Ministers will also come up for high-level review at the meeting.
This will be the first one-to-one meeting between Modi and Shah on the issue of Kashmir, where things were not under control despite massive deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), sources said, adding that the two top leaders of the country were scheduled to devise a comprehensive strategy to deal with the disturbances in the Valley and bring the situation under control.
Sources said after the meeting, the strategy could also be discussed with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh before finally putting it in place.
Asserting that the Centre has taken serious note of violence that took place in Budgam district on April 9 on the day of polling for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat that led the Election Commission of India to defer Anantnag by-poll, sources said the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the BJP national president have received inputs from all resources at their command about the elements fomenting trouble and steps required to be taken to restore peace in the Valley.
Top brass of the Central Government has also been in touch with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti could take her suggestions on board before formulating a comprehensive plan on dealing with the emerging situation as there had been certain new phenomenon with people targeting security forces during encounters and protests, leading to civilian killings, sources said.
They added that working of the first-ever PDP-BJP coalition Government will also come up for high-level review in the meeting especially functioning of the BJP Ministers after a Central Minister recently complained about working of a Cabinet Minister, who was creating obstacles in development of infrastructure in the State.
Pointing out that one-to-one meeting between the Prime Minister and the BJP national president take place very rarely and under extreme emergency requirements, sources said the situation developing in the Kashmir valley was high on agenda of the Central Government, which wants peace to be maintained in the State at all costs.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders including Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, State president Sat Sharma CA, State general secretary (organizations) Ashok Koul, Thupstan Chhewang and Shamsher Singh Manhas, both Members of Parliament (MPs) and Ashok Khajuria, MLC, would head to Bhubaneswar (Odisha) to attend party’s national executive meeting on April 15 and 16.
The proposed meeting of the party will put Odisha in sharp focus in view of the presence of Prime Minister for two days. Besides, the presence of Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States will be an added attraction, sources said.
The BJP, which is holding its national executive committee meeting after two decades, is likely to draft a clear cut strategy for Odisha where it has emerged as a rising force by increasing its tally from 36 Zilla Parishad seats in 2012 to 297 in 2017.
Apart from Modi and Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and other senior Central Ministers will attend the national executive meeting.
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