Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh calls for dialogue with Jammu and Kashmir separatists
On the day that the BJP unleashed a massive publicity blitzkrieg, the minister of state for external affairs General (retd) VK Singh downplayed the sensitive issue of article 370 and asked separatists to come forward for talks.
People in Kashmir woke up to a massive advertisement campaign launched by the BJP on Saturday. Featuring prime minister Narendra Modi, almost all major English and Urdu newspapers in the state displayed the front page ad to lure the voters of in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Written in Urdu and superimposed on the picture of Modi, the BJP coined a new slogan 'Jammu Kashmir Ke Badle Haalaat, Chalo Chale Modi Ke Saath' to lure the voters of the only Muslim-majority state in the country.
In a new dimension to the whole campaign, Urdu newspapers also carried the front page ad advertising the BJP, that too in the saffron backdrop.
The BJP has embarked on Mission 44 plus to form the first ever non-National Conference, non-PDP and non-Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP has roped in Muslims from different strata of society to give an image of inclusiveness and blunt the tools of the opposition.
To boost the morale of BJP cadres in the state, Gen (retd) VK Singh, who has served in different capacities as an army officer in Jammu and Kashmir, arrived in Srinagar on Saturday.
Gen Singh downplayed the sensitive article 370 issue saying that the BJP's main poll plank in parliamentary polls was development and not article 370.
"The BJP poll plank has been development and not article 370. Article 370 got introduced somewhere when people kept asking questions about it. All that the party said at the time was that we need to re-look at all things in the country which create unnecessary problems. They never said it has to be removed or amended", he said.
The minister of state for external affairs also asked separatists to come forward and engage in a dialogue. "My message to all those who consider themselves separatists or those who call themselves separatists is to come forward and engage in dialogue. Let us find the way that is good for the Jammu and Kashmir. The way which is good for the people of J&K", he added.
General Singh, however, hastened to add that separatists do not mean anything to Jammu and Kashmir. "People are looking at different things and then what the so called separatists look at", he said.
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