Jammu: BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Monday said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir were once identified with stone-pelting, but are now being recognised for their achievements in cricket, citing the Union Territory’s Ranji Trophy success as a symbol of the region’s transformation.
Nabin arrived here earlier in the day for his two-day visit to review the BJP’s organisational affairs, his first to Jammu and Kashmir since becoming the party president.
“The youth of Jammu and Kashmir used to be known as stone-pelters, but today, these youths are known as Ranji Trophy champions of Jammu and Kashmir,” he told reporters here.
Nabin said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remained steadfast in his commitment to ensuring the security and development of the people, asserting that the government has always responded firmly to “hostile intentions” against the country.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to ensure a secure life for the people of the country. Whenever anyone has acted with malicious intentions here, he has responded firmly, giving a befitting reply”, he said.
He was accorded a grand welcome by the party workers on his arrival at Jammu Airport in Satwari. Accompanied by the party’s national general secretary and Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Tarun Chugh, Nabin was received at the airport by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Sharma and other senior party leaders, a party spokesman said.
Hundreds of party workers greeted the BJP chief with slogans, floral petals and bouquets. Immediately after his arrival, Nabin headed for Mishriwala on the outskirts of Jammu.
The BJP president later addressed a function at Majestic Grand in Mishriwala organised to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
Paying tribute to the BJP ideologue, Nabin said the country was observing Mukherjee’s 125th birth anniversary through nationwide programmes spread over two years to honour his political, educational and cultural contributions.
“Today, if Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, it is because of the unparalleled sacrifice of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee,” he said.
Later, Nabin chaired an organisational meeting at the BJP’s Trikuta Nagar office with office-bearers, morcha presidents, district presidents and district general secretaries, where he reviewed the party’s organisational activities and outlined future strategies to strengthen its grassroots presence in the Union Territory.
He also visited the historic Raghunath Temple in Jammu to offer prayers before holding a high-level meeting with the BJP’s core group in Jammu and Kashmir later in the evening.
