BJP pledges 500K jobs in its manifesto ahead of J-K Assembly polls

Amit Shah also promised that if elected, the Bharatiya Janata Party will fully rehabilitate Kashmiri pandits

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen

India’s ruling party promised to create 500,000 jobs and rehabilitate Kashmiri pandits in the volatile region of Jammu and Kashmir ahead of local elections later this month.

“I want to clarify to the whole nation that Article 370 is now history, it will never come back and we will not let it come back,” Amit Shah, India’s home minister and a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said at the release of the party’s manifesto on Friday.

Shah also promised that if elected, the Bharatiya Janata Party will fully rehabilitate Kashmiri pandits, a migrant group that fled the region during the peak of the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s. The party also plans to give out handouts like free laptops and stipend to the region’s students, while also boosting tourism.

Modi’s rivals in the region have promised to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood as well as its autonomous status.

Jammu and Kashmir will hold its first local elections since Modi’s government stripped the region of its autonomy in 2019 and downgraded its status from a state to a union territory. Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region roughly the size of the UK, is claimed in full by both Pakistan and India, but divided and controlled by both countries. 

The region has faced decades of separatist violence, and clashes between militants and India’s military have flared up in the run up to the election, which will take place in three phases, starting from Sept. 18. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has so far fielded 51 candidates for the 90-member assembly seats up for grabs in the elections. In the national polls that ended in June, the BJP lost its majority in the parliament for the first time since it came to power a decade ago.

The BJP’s support lies mainly in the Jammu part, where most of the region’s Hindu population resides. In Muslim-majority Kashmir, the Indian National Congress — the BJP’s main rival — has formed an alliance with the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, to gain support.  

Rahul Gandhi, a top leader in the Congress party, promised this week to restore statehood in Jammu and Kashmir if it comes to power. The National Congress, led by Omar Abdullah, has promised to restore the region’s special constitutional guarantees removed five years ago and restart dialog with Pakistan. 

Diplomatic relations between the South Asian neighbors have been frozen since Modi’s government removed Kashmir’s special rights. India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamic terror groups that have carried out frequent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.