JAMMU, Sept 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the BJP gave ticket to terror victim Shagun Parihar to reflect the party’s “determination” to wipe out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir.
Joining the BJP’s election campaign in the Doda district, which along with six other districts of Chenab valley and south Kashmir are going to polls in the first phase of elections beginning September 18, PM Modi said the BJP is looking forward to make Jammu and Kashmir ‘free of terrorism’ and ‘heaven for tourists’, besides an attraction for international film shooting.
The BJP candidates fighting elections from eight assembly segments in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts were present on the dais along with other senior leaders of the party, including Union Minister Jitendra Singh and working president Satpaul Sharma.
Shagun Parihar (29), whose father Ajit Parihar and uncle Anil Parihar were shot dead by terrorists in November 2018, is fighting elections from the Kishtwar constituency. Gajay Singh (Doda), Shakti Raj Parihar (Doda West), Taraq Hussain Keen (Inderwal), Shagun Parihar (Kishtwar), Rakesh Singh Thakur (Ramban), Sunil Sharma (Padder-Nagseni) and Daleep Singh (Bhaderwah) and Mohd Saleem Bhat (Banihal) were the other candidates present.
“Shagun is sitting on the dias whose father and uncle were killed by terrorists. The BJP gave ticket to this daughter, a terror victim. She is not only a candidate but is a living picture of our determination to root out terrorism (from Jammu and Kashmir),” PM Modi said.
He said the BJP wants to make Jammu and Kashmir “free of terrorism and heaven for tourists”.
“I am reminded of the old days, especially Bhaderwah where shooting for films was hit after the eruption of terrorism as film-makers stopped coming to this place. After 10 years of hard work we are not only seeking to bring back film-makers of our country to this place, but also we are working in the direction to pave the way for international film-makers to come here.
“A new film policy has already been framed and Jammu and Kashmir will once again come on the silver screen,” PM Modi said.
He said lakhs of holiday-makers have started coming to the valley where new hotels are coming up. “We will further boost tourism and improve connectivity,” he said.
Asking people to go through the NC-Congress manifesto and the BJP’s poll promises, PM Modi said, “You should know what they are saying and what its outcome will be. The NC, Congress and PDP are talking of the restoration of Article 370.
“What does it mean to you? It implies that the three families will take away your reservations, deprive those who have been given voting rights after decades of wait, and also snatch the rights of daughters and sisters by bringing back Article 35A.
“If their manifesto gets implemented, schools will start burning again, stones will be back in children’s hands, strikes will affect the business, the youth will be jobless. Do you want them to bring those frightening days back?”
Modi is the first prime minister to visit Doda in more than four decades for election campaigning. (Agencies)
