People's enthusiastic participation reflects ‘true mainstreaming’ of democracy in J-K: Jitendra Singh

Jammu: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said the enthusiastic participation of people in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls reflects the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and "true mainstreaming" of democracy in the Union territory.

He also accused previous regimes, especially of the National Conference and Congress, of misusing Article 370 by depriving West Pakistani refugees, Valmiki Samaj and Gorkha community of their “citizenship and voting rights”.

Singh, who represents Udhampur parliamentary constituency, was talking to reporters after casting his vote in the third and final phase of assembly elections at Trikuta Nagar polling station here this morning. The minister was accompanied by his wife and son.

“We are thankful to the prime minister and the BJP leadership for providing such a pleasant and festive atmosphere (for voting). This type of atmosphere is being witnessed for the first time after decades and this is the true mainstreaming of the democracy in J-K,” the Union minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The senior BJP leader said people are coming out to vote in large numbers like any other part of the country.

“You should appreciate that the this is the first election happening in J-K in the past 35 years where there is no strike call from Pakistan, no boycott campaign run by separatists, no separatist slogan…this is why I am terming this election as true mainstreaming of democracy,” Singh said.

The minister said the tenure of the assembly will be of five years instead of six years.

“The previous rulers, under the pretext of Article 370, kept the tenure of the assembly at six years. When Indira Gandhi (the former prime minister) introduced an amendment during Emergency in 1975 and extended the term of the assemblies and Parliament to six years. The NC, which was ruling in J-K with the support of the Congress, adopted the resolution without any second thought.

“However, when the Janta Party government revoked the amendment three years later, the NC-Congress government used Article 370 to continue six year rule. This is how Article 370 was being abused by the political dynasts for their own benefit. Article 370 was no benefit to the people,” he said.

Singh said the past 10 years were used by the BJP-led government to strengthen grassroot democracy in the Union territory.

“The credit goes to Modi for holding urban local bodies, panchayats, including first of its kind District Development Council (DDC) elections, implemented Panchayati Raj Act to benefit the people of the double-engine government,” he said.

Asked about the West Pakistani, Valmiki and Gorkha community population getting voting rights after a long wait of seven decades, he said the injustice with these communities was also another example of the misuse of Article 370 and Article 35A by the previous governments.

“Even if you go abroad, you are getting citizenship rights after 10 years but the community who gave India two prime ministers – Manmohan Singh and I K Gujaral – were deprived of citizenship and voting rights for settling in J-K after partition,” he said.

Asked if it means they were subjected to communal bias, he said “not only that, it was more of vote bank politics because they were not favourably disposed towards Congress party which they believed was responsible for partition".

“Partition was miscarriage in the recent history and they always attributed it to the personal ambitions of (Pandit Jawahar Lal) Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah. They were denied citizenship and voting rights under the garb of Article 370 and 35A even as we have got two prime ministers from their community.

“This again reflected that this (Article 370) was misused and abused by those who were vociferous votaries of it, even as it never helped common man - whether in Jammu or Srinagar. The people in Srinagar within their hearts approved its abrogation as well,” he said.

In response to another question about the BJP’s prospects in the elections, he said “Kamal (Lotus), the party’s symbol will bloom everywhere. Wait for October 8 when the results will be out.”