Why was Pakistan mentioned in the Jammu Kashmir elections? Why did Modi raise the issue of the connection between Congress and Pakistan? This needs to be understood. Modi did not raise this issue because he wants to give importance to Pakistan but because he wants to expose Congress on the issue of Article 370. The stand of National Conference is very clear, it wants the return of Article 370. National Conference has an alliance with Congress in the elections, but Congress is afraid to even mention Article 370 during the elections. There is no mention of it in the Congress's Jammu Kashmir manifesto. This word is missing from the speeches of leaders. Even in the Parliament, Congress supported the bill to abolish Article 370, but Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif implicated Congress by taking its name on this issue. Now BJP leaders will ask questions to Congress by citing Khawaja Asif's statement throughout the elections and Congress will have to give clarifications. For Congress, there is a well on one side and a ditch on the other. If we support the removal of Article 370, then the National Conference will ask, then what is the meaning of the alliance? And if we talk about bringing back Article 370, then the BJP will say that this is Pakistan's agenda.
In fact, after the removal of Article 370 in the Kashmir Valley, there has been a fundamental change at the ground level. Modi is right that there has been a change in Kashmir and this change is visible to everyone. When reporters talk to the people of Kashmir in the election environment, people believe that now neither stones are pelted, nor shops are closed, nor curfew is imposed. People tell with great enthusiasm that after the removal of Article 370, the atmosphere in Kashmir has changed, now children go to school, shops are open, Shikaras run for tourists in Dal Lake, tourists come to visit Kashmir, cinema halls have opened, people in Kashmir now breathe in the open air, now there is no fear of anyone. Now people do not live under the shadow of guns. People believe all this but when reporters ask them that Article 370 was removed by Modi, the atmosphere in Kashmir was changed by Modi, then will you vote for Modi? So most people say that we will vote to defeat Modi because Modi took away our Article 370. Reporters keep asking that if the situation has improved due to the removal of Article 370, people's lives have become prosperous, then why is there resentment over it? But there is no answer to this. This is the ground reality of Kashmir from which one should not turn a blind eye. It will take time for the people there to accept this ground reality because even today the people of Kashmir receive 10-10 messages on their phones every day in which they are misled, their emotions are provoked, they are misled about the central government and Modi. The effect of this misguidance will go on for a long time.(Rajat Sharma)
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