Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday dedicated his government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel saying that it was like fulfilling the dreams of the legendary leader who unified the nation.
The Prime Minister also said that article 370 had drawn a ‘temporary invisible wall’ and gave nothing to people of Kashmir except for terrorism and separatism.
Speaking here during an event organized on the first anniversary of the Statue of Unity and 144th Anniversary of Patel at the 182-meter-high and tallest statue of the world, Modi said that the ‘invisible wall’ created by the Article 370 has now been demolished.
The Prime Minister also hit out at Pakistan saying that those who could not win at war were trying for years to break the unity of the country by sponsoring terrorism and separatism. “But no one could break the unity of India,” he stated.
Modi said that due to terrorism, 40 thousand people had lost their lives in J&K in last three decades.
and claimed that Patel had said that the Kashmir issue would not have taken so long to resolve, if he had handled it. “Now my government has fulfilled his dreams by abrogating the article 370. It will benefit Kashmir and Ladakh in many ways,” Mr Modi stated.
Mr Modi also compared Patel with Chanakya saying that the latter had dreamed of a unified India while the former actually realised it by unifying it.
The Prime Minister also mentioned about the northeast. He said that now the separatism in the northeast was ending and the region joining the mainstream.
Mr Modi also administered a pledge of National Unity appealing the people of the country to celebrate India’s diversity with a sporting spirit and not look at the conflicts. He also attended an exhibition on integrating technology in policing at the Statue of Unity campus.
The Prime Minister on the occasion was also handed over a replica of the national police memorial by the widow of CRPF Jawan Naseer Ahmed who was martyred during the Pulwama terror attack.
Earlier he had inspected the National Unity Day Parade in which apart from Gujarat police, various central police forces and also J&K Police jawans participated. (UNI)
