JAMMU, OCT 01 – Enthusiastic participation of people in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections reflects the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and “mainstream democracy in true sense” stated Union Minister Jitendra Singh who represents the Udhampur parliamentary constituency, cast his vote in the third and final phase of the assembly elections at the Trikuta Nagar polling station this morning. The minister was accompanied by his wife and son.
He accused the previous governments, especially the National Conference (NC) and the Congress, of misusing Article 370 by depriving West Pakistani refugees, Valmiki community and Gorkha community of their “citizenship and voting rights”.
Singh, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters after casting his vote, “We are thankful to the Prime Minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership for providing such a peaceful and festive atmosphere (for voting). For the first time in decades, such an atmosphere is being seen and this is the true mainstream democracy in Jammu and Kashmir. The senior BJP leader said that like any other part of the country, people are coming out in large numbers to vote. Singh said, “You should understand that this is the first election in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 35 years in which there was no call for attack from Pakistan, no boycott campaign by separatists, no separatist slogan was raised… So I consider this election as the true mainstream democracy.” The minister said that the term of the assembly will be five years instead of six years. The minister said that the term of the assembly will be five years instead of six years. He said, “The previous rulers had kept the term of the assembly at six years on the pretext of Article 370. Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister) introduced an amendment during the Emergency in 1975 and extended the term of assemblies and Parliament by six years. The National Conference, which was ruling Jammu and Kashmir with the support of the Congress, passed the resolution without any second thoughts.”
“However, when the Janata Party government repealed the amendment three years later, the NC-Congress government used Article 370 to continue its six-year rule. In this way, Article 370 was misused by political dynasts for their own benefit. Article 370 did not benefit the people,” he said.
Singh said the last 10 years were used by the BJP-led government to strengthen grassroots democracy in the Union Territory.
