Although many curbs, including those on movement have been eased, mobile telephone and Internet connections in the Kashmir valley, home to around seven million people, remain cut off.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday challenged the country’s opposition parties to bring back the Article 370 and Article 35A for Jammu and Kashmir.

He dared the opposition that if they had courage, to include in their election manifestos, in the Oct.21 Maharashtra polls and also in future elections, that they would revert to Article 370, and reverse the BJP government’s historic decision of Aug.5.

Training guns at what he called “the tired allies,” Modi said the opposition is shocked by the amount of work done by the BJP government in the past five years, and they also have come around to accept that the BJP-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra are also performing well.

“From the holy land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, I am challenging the opposition - make your stand clear and announce whether you support the government’s decision to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A or not,” said Modi, addressing his first election rally in Jalgaon, north Maharashtra.

The PM said the government is constantly endeavouring to ensure return to full normalcy in Jammu & Kashmir and it would take another four months or so to achieve that.

Taking a swipe at the opposition parties and their leaders for mouthing what he termed as ‘the same language as a neighbouring country (Pakistan)’, he said “there seems to be a great co-ordination between them.”

Modi reiterated that on Aug.5 the government did something that everybody thought was impossible - by abrogating Article 370 for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh to enable the people there to join the national mainstream and progress.

“Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are not just pieces of land for us, they represent India’s crown,” Modi said amidst applause.

“Such ‘tired allies’ may support each other, but that is not sufficient to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of the people and youth of the state,” he said.

Urging the people to bring back “a strong government” under the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, he listed out various achievements of the administration which is changing the lives of the youth, women and farmers in the state.

“We are functioning to the fullest capacity to help achieve the dreams of every poor person in the state and the rest of the country by 2022. The economic situation in the entire region will change very quickly,” he assured.

He said that an amount of Rs 3.50 lakh crore would be spent on the Water Life Mission alone to bring water connection to each home in the country, farmers will be pushed to become exporters in which food processing industry would play a crucial role.

Dwelling on ‘New India’ for which the people voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Modi said that the country enjoys an unprecedented position in the world comity which was made possible because of the 130 crore countrymen.

“The ‘New India’ in not about securing our present, but also marching towards progress. We are not bound by unnecessary bonds of the past, but strengthening the present and deciding the future. The whole world is supporting India,” Modi said.

Modi said that his government had taken necessary steps to maintain security in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Alongside the withdrawal on Aug. 5 of constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir more autonomy than any other Indian state, Modi’s government flooded the region with additional troops, and imposed curfew-like restrictions to keep a lid on protests. Some mobile phone connections are set to be restored on Monday, the government said on Saturday.

“I assure you that it won’t take more than 4 months to normalise the abnormal situation that has persisted there for 40 years,” Modi said at the rally, speaking in Hindi.

“Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh aren’t just a piece of land for us,” Modi said, referring to the remote Buddhist enclave that borders China.

New Delhi insists that its move in August was essential to integrate Kashmir fully into India and bring development to the Himalayan region, but there is anger and discontent among many locals over the decision.

Agencies