BJP plans celebrations to mark anniversary of Article 370 roll back in J&K

SRINAGAR — Bhartiya Janata Party’s J&K unit has decided to mark the first anniversary of revocation of Article 370 with mega celebrations from August 05 for 15 days and the day first will witness unfurling of Tricolor in all zonal, tehsil and district headquarters.

The party leadership believes that the historic decision taken last year has helped restore peace in the region but COVID-19 has played a spoilsport as far as the development of J&K UT is concerned.

BJP General Secretary, Ashok Koul said that a 15-day-long program has been chalked out to celebrate one year of last year’s August 05 decision—scraping the Article 370 and slicing the erstwhile J&K State into two Union Territories (UTs)—J&K and Ladakh UT.

“As far as the restoration of peace in 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 05, Koul said that day one will start with unfurling of Tricolour in all district, zonal, and tehsil headquarters in J&K. “Municipal wards and head offices will also witness hoisting of Tricolour on August 05. 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 as a BJP leader, he is quite satisfied with the outcome of last year’s August 05 announcement.

BJP J&K spokesman, Altaf Thakur said that the party has decided to celebrate 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 Karamcharis,” Thakur said.