Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, who is now in the UK for six days, met exclusively and interactively on Monday with students and social groups from Jammu and Kashmir who live in London.
People from various occupations and regions of the Union Territory, including the Minister's own Lok Sabha seat of Udhampur, attended the gathering, which lasted for about an hour. Representatives of the J&K Study Centre branch in London, which has its main office in New Delhi, were also present at the conference.
Additionally, there were activists from groups of Kashmiri Pandit and Dogra organisations. Dr. Jitendra Singh was grateful for their assistance in rectifying the false information spread by some entrenched interests regarding India, notably in relation to J&K, and for standing up to the British forces that were hostile to the country.
The minister said that since taking office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has worked to address a number of historical inconsistencies that have been left behind by the various administrations since 1947. He said that the repeal of Article 370 had given the residents of Jammu and Kashmir a feeling of belonging and given them equal rights with other citizens of the nation.
According to Dr. Jitendra Singh, Prime Minister Modi would be remembered for bringing justice to the Pakistani refugees who had been living in J&K and to the girls of J&K who had been denied their constitutional rights to citizenship and property ownership.
In the course of the conversation, Dr. Jitendra Singh stated that the issue of Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) would not have arisen if the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had permitted the then Home Minister Sardar Patel to handle J&K in the same manner he was handling other princely states of India. Today, the part of J&K that is illegally occupied by Pakistan is part of India.
But he added that reclaiming the illegally occupied PoJK from Pakistan's rule and returning it to India are top priorities for both the government of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP as a political party.
As they interacted with the Union Minister, various groups gave him an update on their most recent efforts to unify all pro-India groups against anti-India forces. They presented a short account of the seminars and intellectual gatherings they sometimes held, as well as their meetings with various Members of Parliament in the British Parliament. The Minister told them that now is the moment to tell our own story in order to counter the false narratives peddled by our enemies.
According to the Minister, most J&K residents who have settled in the UK have established respectable careers as professionals or in business. He added that they not only contribute to the development of the nation in which they live but are also constantly eager to provide their services to their motherland.
