New Delhi: Upbeat over the “positive response” government received over its decision to repeal the contentious Article 370 — which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir — the BJP has now decided to launch a nationwide “awareness campaign” to inform the nation why this Article had to go.
For the BJP, Article 370 is going to be one of the main poll planks in the coming Assembly polls in four states — Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi — as it has only “strengthened” its nationalism plank.
Abrogation of Article 370 was one of the core agendas of the BJP and the RSS-led Sangh Parivar and was hailed by the BJP leadership as correction of a “long overdue historic wrong”.
The ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’, whose launch date is yet to be finalised, will have BJP leadership, including top brass like national president Amit Shah, working president JP Nadda and central leaders, holding sessions with opinion makers to emphasise why the Article 370 was the “biggest roadblock” in the state’s development and how it was “used as a tool by Pakistan and its sponsored separatists” to spread terrorism. Through this campaign, the BJP will also reach out to nearly 2,000 prominent people from the film, sport, legal and academic fields, who could also be asked to assist the campaign.
Around 370 sessions will be held across the country, including at states capital, ditsricts level and Union Territories.
The BJP has formed a committee to give a final shape to this campaign, which will be headed by Mr Nadda and will have Union ministers including Pralhad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Dharamendra Pradhan and Jitendra Singh. Also, former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, party’s youth leaders and MPs Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, Ladakh MP and Tejaswi Surya, Bangalore South MP, are also part of the committee. BJP general secretary (organisation) B.L. Sant-hosh is also part of the committee.
BJP will also rope in its various wings, also including the youth wing and the women wing, to relay its message on the issue.
