Narendra Modi will bring back Vajpayee era of more engagement with Jammu and Kashmir: BJP

NEW DELHI: Reaching out today to the Kashmir- based parties, BJP invoked the days of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and said that Narendra Modi will bring back the era when there was more "engagement" with Jammu and Kashmir to ensure that peace and development reached the state.

Party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said there was near "unanimity" that the NDA government had done much more for J-K than the UPA regime.

She was apparently responding to recent comments by Kashmir-based politicians, including moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, that the NDA government had taken steps to resolve the Kashmir issue.

"If you see the NDA, it took better decisions on Kashmir ... If NDA and BJP walk in his (Vajpayee's) footsteps, then there is a lot of hope," Farooq had said in a recent interview as he accused UPA of seeing the region's problems as being a security issue alone.

Sitharaman said that, "Modi will bring back the days of Vajpayee. We will like to remind you that it is the NDA which is being seen with hope."

BJP's position on J-K is well known, she said while referring to the "insaniyat" (humanity) and "insaaf" (justice) invoked by Vajpayee to reach out to Kashmiris.