Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
I have been watching the elections in Jammu and Kashmir for the last 40 years. Saw for the first time on Tuesday, drums were being played outside the polling booth on the day of voting in Jammu and Kashmir. For the first time, I saw people dancing and singing to cast their votes. Such pictures were never seen before in Jammu and Kashmir on the day of polling. I remember just seven years ago, in 2017, there was a by-election on Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Farooq Abdullah was in the field. There were names of 12 lakh 61 thousand 315 people in the voters list but only seven percent of the voters reached the polling booth. Farooq Abdullah got a total of 48 thousand votes and he won. But on Tuesday, 65.65 percent voting took place in the third phase of voting in the same Jammu and Kashmir. This is proof of the change that has come in Jammu and Kashmir. Those who left everything behind and settled in Jammu and Kashmir at the time of partition, were called “West Pakistani Refugees” for 75 years. But the area from which these people came in 1947 was India at that time. But still 22 thousand families had to live as refugees in their own country for 75 years. For 75 years, due to Article 370, West Pakistani refugees, Gorkha community and people of Valmiki community were not given the right to vote in the assembly and parliament elections. These people could vote only in the elections of Block Development Council and District Development Council. Three-four generations were spent waiting that one day they would get the right to be Indians and be called Kashmiris. Today he realized this right in the ink on his finger.
Seeing the joy on the faces of women after voting and the tears of joy in their eyes, I realized what the removal of Article 370 means for these people. Today we can imagine their happiness, but will never be able to feel the pain that they suffered for 75 years due to Article 370. Today these people got the right to vote for the first time. That is why the entire family voted 100 percent and openly said that they will vote for Modi because Modi has given the right to vote. There is anger among these people that the National Conference is vowing to bring back Article 370 and the Congress is supporting it. BJP made this an election issue. While raising this issue in the rally in Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Congress leaders are shouting about bringing back Article 370 but it never comes out of their mouth that Pakistan occupied Kashmir should also be brought back. Is. (Rajat Sharma)
Watch: ‘Aaj Ki Baat, Rajat Sharma Sath’ full episode of October 01, 2024
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