Congress should thank Modi for abrogating Article 370: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

'The biggest advocates of the provision including Jawahar Lal Nehru had said that this provision would erode over time, but that didn't happen,’ Singh said.

Asking the Congress to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling the grand old party's "promise" of abrogating Article 370, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that grassroots-level democracy has flourished for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir.

“When Syama Prasad Mookerjee suggested in the Constituent Assembly that there should be a rethink on it (Article 370), the biggest advocates of the provision including Jawahar Lal Nehru responded by saying 'this will erode over time’. But the Congress couldn’t remove it. In fact, they should thank the BJP for fulfilling something promised by Congress,” Singh told reporters, here, on the sidelines of an official function.

Asked about when the much-awaited Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be held, Singh said, “Grassroots level democracy has flourished for the first time in the history of J&K. This was missing for the past 70 years.”

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After the fall of the last elected government in June 2018, the governor’s administration held Municipal and Panchayat polls from September to November that year, despite threats from militants, and boycott calls from separatists and local parties.

It was expected that Assembly polls in the erstwhile state would be held in April-May 2019 along with the Lok Sabha elections. However, the Election Commission deferred Assembly polls citing the constraints over the availability of central forces and other logistics. In all likelihood, the Municipal and Panchayat polls will be held in Kashmir later this year, as the five-year term is nearing its end.

On the happenings in Bengal, Singh, who is MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), said that political hypocrisy had come to the fore. “Those who used to accuse the Centre of killing people are themselves killing civilians. There is a governance failure and there is state terrorism. In a democracy, there is no place for state terrorism,” he said.

The Union Minister evaded a query on the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).