Indian premier says Kashmir’s scrapped special status was 'blocking its progress'

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that Article 370, which granted the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region a special status in the Constitution, was like a wall that had blocked progress for decades and was dismantled for good by his party.

“Because Article 370 is gone, I can now ask people to help BJP win at least 370 seats and the NDA 400,” Modi told a public gathering in the Jammu province, referring to his party's broader coalition of National Democratic Alliance.

Modi is looking to win a third term in office, counting the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 as one of the crowning achievements of his 10-year rule.

Abrogation of Kashmir's autonomous status has been one of the three major ideological and election planks for the Indian Hindu rightwing. The others being the construction of a temple for the Hindu deity Ram over a razed medieval mosque and a uniform civil code.

During his 10-year rule, two of these have been accomplished. Only the implementation of a uniform civil code remains to be achieved.

His trusted deputy and India's Home Minister Amit Shah also recently told a public gathering that "we have abrogated Article 370, so we believe that the people of the country will bless the BJP with 370 seats."

Kashmir's special status allowed the region to have a separate constitution, a bicameral legislature where it could frame its own laws, and a separate flag. Also, outsiders could not purchase properties or apply for local government jobs.

The Hindu nationalist government said the special status was discriminatory and fueled separatism in the region, where a popular anti-India insurgency has been raging for the past 34 years.

The loss of the special status has raised anxieties among the Muslim majority population that it would be reduced to a minority, especially after the Indian government made it easier for outsiders to buy properties and acquire local residency.

Visits to Hindu-majority Jammu

During his first term as prime minister, from 2014-2019, Modi visited the region 18 times. But he has not visited the Muslim-majority Kashmir region even once in his second term.

His three visits to the region in his second term have been to the Hindu-majority Jammu province only.

Besides laying the foundation of or inaugurating multiple development projects worth more than $3.85 billion, he also distributed government job orders among 1,500 people. He will also lay the foundation stone for a new terminal building at Jammu Airport. He would also launch a new rail line besides inaugurating the region’s first electric train.

Modi also took a dig at the “dynastic politics”, referring to the rule of two to three generations of two families -- Muftis and Abdullahs -- who have ruled the region for a major part of the past more than seven decades.

“Dynasties only cared about their own interests, not yours. The youth were the main victims of this dynastic rule…Today a new wave of politics is spreading across the country,” he said.

He said that “Kashmir was now brimming with life” and “strikes were a thing of the past”.

The Indian prime minister said that from his recent visit to the Arabian Gulf, he felt the Gulf nations were positive about investments in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that G20 meetings held in Kashmir last year have “reverberated across the world and the world has been impressed by Kashmir’s beauty, heritage and culture.”

Modi claimed that 20 million tourists visited Kashmir last year, and the numbers are set to increase in the coming years, which will create more employment opportunities.