Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir BJP will be celebrating the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 with a fortnight-long program starting August 5 and the day one will witness the unfurling of tricolor at all district headquarters in the UT, a senior party leader said today.
BJP General Secretary Ashok Koul said that a 15-day long program has been planned to celebrate one year of the historic decision.
On August 5 last year, the Central Government had announced the scrapping of Article 370 after which the erstwhile state of J&K was divided into two Union Territories (UTs)— J&K and Ladakh.
Koul said that as a BJP leader, he is quite satisfied with the outcome of last year’s August 5 announcement. He added that although Kashmir is peaceful than before, the development has not picked up the pace yet due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“See, Kashmir is today peaceful and that’s because of revocation of Article 370. On the development front, Covid-19 played a spoilsport. The way development should have taken place it hasn’t,” Koul told NVI.
He said security forces have been able to kill a record number of militants this year and protests at the encounter sites have also 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 5, Koul said day one will start with the unfurling of Tri-colour in all district, zonal, and tehsil party headquarters in J&K. “Municipal wards and head offices will also witness the hoisting of tricolor on August 5. 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.
BJP’s J&K spokesman Altaf Thakur said that the party has decided to celebrate the 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 and poor people,” Thakur said.
He added that the schedule of the Union Ministers’ visit to J&K will be out soon.
-ARK
