Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday, addressing a rally in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday also laid focus on the fact that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the incidents of terror attacks have come down. He clearly said that in the last ten years of the NDA government led by Modi at the center terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir has reduced by seventy percent. On this, he remarked that this was a great achievement bearing in mind that the region had been subjected to violence for decades.
“For many years, Kashmir remained on the front line of terrorism,” Shah said, in the light of the historical past of the region. “But ten years of the Modi government reduced terrorism by 70 percent,” However, he attributed this feat to pin-pointed actions by the center which worked on providing stability and safety to Jammu and Kashmir especially since the withdrawal of Article 370 in August 2019.
Amit Shah’s speech is timely given that the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls are scheduled for the next month in three phases, August 18, the 25th and October, the first. The Assembly that will comprise of ninety members will be directly formed and thus the elections are significant in determining the fate of the political administration of the region. The results are yet to be declared and they will be out on the 8th of October.
While delivering his speech, Shah also criticized the opposition political parties especially the Congress, the NC and the PDP. He freeter these parties as being humanist’s, destabilizers and a security threat to the region. As per Shah all these opposition parties taken Jammu and Kashmir towards the ‘fire of terrorism’ which the current Modi government has been and trying to turn around from. He further observed that in the event that these parties regained power they were likely to reverse many of the gains that the country had witnessed in the last decade.
Shah’s comments fit with BJP’s overall message in the region that has focused on their security and development as the major accomplishments of Narender Modi government. Among the them, terrorism has been reduced to a large extent which forms the integral part of this narrative where BJP is depicted as the party which is capable of ensuring development and prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir.
As the date for the elections draws closer, a key focus for the voters is the Modi government’s performance in implementing measures in order to curb act of terrorism and ensure law and order in the region. In the context of Shah’s comments, the BJP has brought change that is in many ways positive, as far as politics in India are concerned; whereas, the previous regimes pose threats that the Indians must avoid. The next elections will determine the measure to which the people of the Jammu and Kashmir accept the BJP’s future for them.
