PM Modi’s visit to Srinagar city in the Kashmir Valley — the heartland of decades of anti-India rebellion — comes amid strong public opposition there to New Delhi’s changes five years ago. That move revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status, annulled its separate constitution, downgraded and split the former state into two centrally governed union territories— Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.
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“We have said in the parliament that we will restore (the region’s) statehood. Only the BJP will fulfill this commitment,” PM Modi said to a cheering crowd at the rally while referring to Bharatiya Janata Party, without specifying any timeline for the return of statehood.
He called the ongoing election the festival of democracy in the region. “Jammu and Kashmir is strengthening the democracy of India, and I congratulate the people for this,” he said.
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He said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir have found confidence in democracy again and are feeling that their vote can bring change, which is the first step towards their empowerment. This is PM Modi’s first rally for BJP candidates in Kashmir before the assembly elections in the Union territory and his third visit to the region this year.
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