Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled the BJP’s promises of abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram temple and the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Singh was addressing an election rally in favour of the BJP candidate and Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh at Basohli in the Kathua district which is part of the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency that will go to polls in the first phase on 19 April.

Expressing confidence about Jitendra Singh winning from the constituency for the third term with a huge margin, the Defence Minister appealed to the people to pick up the party’s past manifestoes, since its origin from the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, and see to it that “we have fulfilled all our promises.”

“We finished Article 370, which provided special status to J&K, to bring it at par with other parts of the country. Opposition parties were talking about construction of the Ram temple since 1984 but it was done by us and our Prime Minister performed its ‘Pran Pratishtha’ on 22 January,” Singh said.

“We implemented the CAA but there are people who are trying to create misgivings but I want to clarify that no Indian citizen is going to lose his citizenship,” he added.

He also referred to the banning of triple talaq and said “whether we form the government or not, attack on the dignity and honour of the women is not acceptable to us.”

“I want to make it clear to them that any woman irrespective of her faith is our mother, sister and daughter. The attack on the dignity and honour of women will not be tolerated. Whether we form a government or not, how can we accept such a thing which will throw her out of her home,” he said.

He said “Ram Rajya” has started taking roots in the country and nobody can stop it from becoming a reality.

He said the BJP is doing what it says and it was not the case with Congress which ruled the country for so many decades but failed to make the country a powerful nation which it should have done.

Taking a dig at PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti over her remarks that there would be no one to carry the tricolour in Jammu and Kashmir in case Article 370 was scrapped. “I want to tell you, Mehbooba Mufti, today the tricolour is flying in all parts of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Addressing the rally, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Section 254 C pertaining to Land viz-a-viz displaced persons from Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) is already under government review and Congress party and its allies, with nothing to claim to their credit, are desperately trying to make an issue out of non-issue and confuse the masses on the eve of election.

There should be absolutely no apprehension or misgiving in this regard, particularly when the government has been reiterating in the past also that this Section is under review. he added.