The youth of Kashmir wants to move on and be part of India's growth story

JITENDRA SINGH, UNION MINISTER OF STATE, PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

-  NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

Q/ How do you analyse the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, considering it was held after 10 years and its significance in light of the abrogation of Article 370?

A/ What we witnessed today in Kashmir is the true ‘mainstreaming’ of democracy.... And the credit for this goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his inclusive approach.... For the first time, after several decades, there was no separatist slogan, no hartal, no poll boycott call, and the voter turnout was almost as much as the national average. It has been a long journey since the 1950s and 1960s, when the returning officer would reject all nomination papers and just accept one—that of the ruling party—and that candidate would be elected unopposed. From there, we moved to a long spell of terrorism, which lasted more than three decades and saw a limited turnout of 8 to 10 per cent. The hartal call would come from Islamabad and the boycott call from the separatist groups in Kashmir valley, and people would hardly come out to vote. Only a handful of entitled people or families would vote, manipulating a 10 per cent voter turnout to get themselves elected as legislators and MPs and also form governments generation after generation. Now, it is a true grassroots democracy.