The current ruling political party of India, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jammu and Kashmir has decided to mark the first anniversary of revocation of Article 370 with mega celebrations from August 5 for 15 days.
The party leadership believes that the decision taken last year has helped restore peace in the region, however, the coronavirus pandemic has been a spoilsport as far as the development of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) union territory is concerned.
BJP General Secretary Ashok Koul has said that a 15-day long program has been chalked out to celebrate one year of 2019’s August 5 decision – scraping the Article 370 and bifurcating the erstwhile J&K State into two Union Territories (UTs)— Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
“As far as the restoration of peace in the J&K UT is concerned, figures are before everybody and the situation is quite clear. Kashmir is peaceful today and credit goes to last year’s historic decision. On the development front, Covid-19 played a spoilsport. The way development should have taken place it hasn’t,” Koul said.
He said security forces too have been able to kill a record number of militants this year and protests at the encounter sites have vanished.
“Today, we see no clashes at the encounter sites as youth have realized the futility of protests,” he said.
Asked about the 15-day-long program commencing from August 5, Koul said day one will start with unfurling of Tri-colour in all district, zonal, and tehsil (administrative divisions) headquarters in J&K.
“Municipal wards and head offices will also witness hoisting of tri-colour on August 5. There are a lot of programs on cards. We have kept a day to remember all police martyrs and all political workers killed so far in the past three decades including those killed recently,” Koul said.
He said that as a BJP leader, he is satisfied with the outcome of last year’s August 5 announcement.
BJP JK spokesman Altaf Thakur said that the party has decided to celebrate the J&K’s complete integration with the Union of India.
“Central ministers will address virtual rallies. They will also visit various districts of J&K and meet refugees, ‘Safai Karam Charis’ (sanitation workers),” Thakur said.
Advertisement
Author
