Only 200-250 people in preventive detention in J&K, says BJP's Ram Madhav

BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav on Monday claimed that only 200 to 250 people remained under preventive detention in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at an event organised by the Rashtriya Ekta Abhiyan in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Madhav claimed about 2,500 people had been detained soon after the Narendra Modi government had abrogated provisions of Article 370. "Today in Jammu and Kashmir, only 200-250 people are under preventive detention in view of law and order. They have been kept under preventive detention respectfully, some in five-star guest houses, some in five-star hotels," ANI quoted Madhav as saying.

Madhav declared, "There has been peace in Kashmir since two months. You can understand what do people of Kashmir want and what these 200-250 people want."

Madhav also defended the Narendra Modi government's decision to abrogate Article 370, claiming it had “denied fundamental rights” to Jammu and Kashmir residents. Madhav argued when the issue of implementing Article 370 came up during a meeting of the Congress Working Committee in the 1950s, the entire panel had opposed it. “However, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru pushed for the provision and CWC members had to agree for special status for Jammu and Kashmir,” Madhav claimed.

Nehru had asked Sardar Patel, the then home minister, to intervene in the matter and seek the CWC's support for Article 370, the BJP leader claimed.

Courage was needed to revoke Article 370, which the Congress could not display, the BJP leader said, adding the provision was tinkered with as many as 45 times by the constitutional method all these years.

"Abolition of Article 370 was on our agenda for five decades, we stuck to it and we did it in a democratic manner," Madhav said.

"Residents of Kashmir were deprived of all those fundamental rights, which are enjoyed by every countryman since January 26, 1950 (when the Constitution came into force). If there would have been Article 370 here in Aurangabad, it would never have been an industrial city. No big investment came to J&K since 1950s and Article 370 was a key hurdle to it," Madhav said.

People advocating human rights talk about injustice when the internet was shutdown in the Valley, he said. "But where were these people when Article 370 denied reservations to scheduled tribes in the state, when women of J&K were deprived from marrying non-Kashmiri men?" Madhav asked.

(With PTI inputs)