Addressing the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024 here today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said indecisiveness had kept the state of Jammu and Kashmir mired in violence and civilian strife for nearly seven decades before the abrogation of Article 370.
He recalled reading about the joy and excitement felt by citizens of India in October 1947 when the erstwhile royal kingdom of J&K had acceded to India, but added that the 72 years that followed that time were a very sad chapter of Indian history.
Modi said today he felt heartened and happy to hear news and reports of record voting in the recently held assembly elections in J&K.
It may be recalled that elections to the J&K Legislative Assembly were held on September 18 and 25, and on October 1, 2024, in three phases to elect its 90 members. The election results were announced on October 8, 2024.
The INDIA alliance, consisting of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), won 49 of the 90 seats in which elections were held. While the JKNC won the highest number of seats (42), the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 29 seats secured the largest share of the popular vote (25.64 percent).
The 2024 assembly election was held after more than a decade and was the first poll held after revocation of J&K’s special status and its statehood was withdrawn in 2019.
Congratulating The Hindustan Times (HT) for its historic journey of 100 years, the Prime Minister wished the paper and all the people associated with it the best for their future endeavours. He also visited the exhibition of the HT at the venue.
He praised the resilience of the Indian citizen in overcoming the challenge of British colonial rule and the threat of losing their much cherished fundamental rights during the time of the 1975 Emergency. They had proved that the people of India would never allow their country to disintegrate or break down. The strength of common man had also been exhibited during the COVID pandemic in 2020-21, he added.
Claiming that his government had won back the trust of the people by ensuring the Mantra of Progress for all, the Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to build a new and developed India.
India, he said, India was on the move to becoming the world’s third largest economy and its start-up industry was one of the best, if not the best in the world. India’s youth and women were finding opportunities and taking calculated risks in various fields, which was something to be proud about.
“Indian society, today, is filled with unprecedented aspirations and we have made these aspirations the basis of our policies”, claimed the Prime Minister.
He said the approach was “Spend Big for the People and Save Big for the People”.
Remarking that 10 years ago, nobody had anticipated such big changes in India to take place, Shri Modi said “India's success has inspired us to dream bigger and fulfil it”.
Modi expressed confidence that India will maintain this pace of development and predicted that The Hindustan Times would witness this “new century of a rapidly changing India”.