Ram Madhav, national BJP general secretary, today urged party cadres to walk an extra mile to remove misgivings about the party in the Kashmir valley amid a surprise entry of Works Minister and senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar and Social Welfare Minister Sajad Lone at the BJP’s maiden executive meeting.
Sources said in the closed-door meeting at the SKICC on the banks of the Dal lake, Madhav admitted that the alliance with the PDP was initially “difficult”, but urged the cadres to make an effort and “mix with people”. He said the BJP had to establish a firm foothold in the Valley and gain acceptance as it was yet to win any electoral process in the state.
Sources said Akhtar and Lone made brief speeches, where they stated that BJP meeting in Kashmir was appreciable and it would help in bridging the gap between Jammu and Kashmir regions.
The sources said Madhav also said the BJP had no problem if the protests were held in a democratic manner, but had issues with the “gun (militancy)”.
Even as a BJP leader said Akhtar and Lone had been invited for lunch, their brief presence at the executive meeting bears significance as Madhav had yesterday told party workers that they had to strive to keep the PDP-BJP alliance strong, so that it completed its full term. “We will think about future later…first you have to ensure that we complete the present term,” Madhav had stated.
While Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh had yesterday called Hurriyat a ‘stakeholder’, state BJP president Sat Sharma remained stuck to the core party stand during the executive meeting.
Addressing workers, he said the NIA raids had broken Hurriyat’s backbone. “By 2022, we should have a Hurriyat-free J&K,” he said.
Earlier, the Deputy CM flayed Congress leader P Chidambaram over his remarks on Kashmir and held the opposition party responsible for the present “mess”. “The kind of situation we are facing in Kashmir today is a cumulative outcome of the acts of omission and commission by Chidambaram’s party, which has been in power for 50 of the 70 years after Independence, both at the Centre and in the state,” he said in reaction to Chidambaram’s statement that he pitched for greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
Ram Madhav tells cadres to mix with people across state
