By repealing 370, PM laid foundation of democracy in J&K, Shah tells Parl

Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said PM Modi was the first leader to lay the foundation of democracy in J&K, and that the UT had been experiencing a new era of peace and prosperity since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.

Terming Article 370 as the root cause of Kashmir separatism, Shah said past governments retained the provision out of compulsions of “vote-bank politics”. He accused erstwhile dispensations of adopting a “fearful and flexible and coy” approach to terrorism, saying Modi adopted a policy of zero tolerance.

“Terrorists would enter, hurl bombs and kill people and past governments at the Centre would say and do nothing. They preferred flexibility... perhaps for vote-bank compulsions. After PM Modi came, Uri and Pulwama attacks happened. Within 10 days, we answered Pakistan with surgical and airstrikes. PM Modi enlisted India alongside the US and Israel, the only other nations ever ready to defend their borders,” Shah said to loud applause in the Rajya Sabha where he was replying to discussions on the Budget for the Home Ministry.

The minister accused past governments of crushing democracy in J&K, saying the erstwhile state only had 90 MLAs and six MPs until 2019.

“Today, we have 34,262 elected representatives from the level of gram panchayats to the Lok Sabha. Gone are the days when masters from Delhi would come with certificates declaring winners. Today, people are electing their own representatives,” he said, citing record voting in the J&K Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing rivals who asked what had had changed in J&K after the abrogation of Article 370, Shah dished out comparative security statistics to say: “The best year for the UPA so far as J&K security went was 2004, which saw 1,587 incidents. In 2024, we saw 85 incidents. Civilian deaths were 733 in 2004 and 26 in 2024; security personnel deaths were 331 in 2004 and 31 in 2024.”

The minister said between 2004 and 2014, the number of terror incidents plummeted from 7217 to 2,242 and deaths by 70 per cent. “Between 2010 and 2014, organised stone-pelting cases averaged 2,654 annually and there were 112 deaths while organised strikes averaged 132 a year. In 2024, there were none. We ruthlessly sacked relatives of terrorists who were in government jobs. Today, sympathisers of terrorists in the Bar Council are in jails of Delhi and Srinagar. Also, there was a time when terrorists were glorified. No more. Today they are buried where they die,” Shah said.

Shah said the number of children joining terrorist ranks had dropped to zero. On the development front, he said over 2 crore record tourists came to J&K in 2023 with Rs 12,000 crore investments already yielding returns. —TNS