Kashmir has been transformed, Indian PM says on first visit in five years

SRINAGAR – The Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir has been transformed and integrated with the rest of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on March 7, crediting the change to his government’s contentious decision to revoke its special status.

Visiting the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley for the first time since 2019 – the year the status was revoked – Mr Modi said Kashmir’s development is a priority for India as it sits like a crown in the country’s north.

“This new Jammu-Kashmir has the courage to overcome any challenge,” Mr Modi told thousands of people attending a public meeting at a stadium in Srinagar, the region’s summer capital, amid tight security.

“The country is seeing these smiling faces of yours… (and) feeling relieved to see you all happy.”

Mr Modi’s visit to a region roiled for decades by militant violence, and which is also claimed by nuclear-armed rival Pakistan,

comes weeks before general elections

in which he will seek a rare third term.

Although his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not a key player in Kashmir, the visit is seen as a signal to its voters that the party has fulfilled a core promise to end Kashmir’s special status.

“This is the new Jammu and Kashmir we had been awaiting for decades,” Mr Modi added, listing achievements and investments made during the last five years.

Kashmir would become a global success story, he said, as he launched a series of tourism and farm projects.

Armed security personnel guarded downtown areas of Srinagar, commandos in boats patrolled its scenic Dal Lake, and use of drones was banned. Schools were shut and exams postponed as thousands of government employees gathered for the meeting.

Mr Modi has said Kashmir’s special status allowed it a measure of administrative autonomy that held back its development, and his government has unveiled several investment and infrastructure projects.

It has also said Jammu and Kashmir will have its own elected legislative assembly, but polls have not been held and the Supreme Court in 2023 ordered a vote to be held by Sept 30.

Kashmiri politicians who opposed revocation of special status criticised Mr Modi’s visit.

“This visit is only meant to… drum up support amongst the BJP’s core constituency in the rest of India for the upcoming parliament elections,” Ms Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister and former BJP ally, posted on the social network X. REUTERS