Devendra Singh Rana and Surjeet Singh Salathia both recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi in the presence of Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Jitendra Singh.

Rana, who is a former MLA and the younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, has also served as a political advisor to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah. BJP general secretary in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir Tarun Chugh and its Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Ravinder Raina welcomed them in the party.

Rana, an aide to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdulla, said he joined the BJP because of its support for his work on setting a "Jammu narrative" through what Rana called the "Jammu Declaration."

He has been working to bring Jammu's intellectuals, civil society, business leaders and those in trade and commerce together for the betterment of the entire region.

"I will work for the Jammu declaration even at the peril of my own political career as it will eventually lead to offsetting the fault lines created between the regions, various segments of the society as also with the rest of the country," said Rana. He said the narrative coming from the secular Jammu will set in motion the process of intra-region and inter-religious discourse crucial for unity and harmony.

“I pitched for the Jammu Declaration, which will be a voice of Jammu by Jammu for inclusive Jammu and Kashmir. It will defeat the votaries of the Dixon Plan who want to divide Jammu region on the basis of religion,” Rana added.

Sir Owen Dixon was a United Nations representative who proposed assigning Ladakh to India, the northern areas and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) to Pakistan, splitting Jammu between the two countries, and recommending a plebiscite in Kashmir.

Rana said he spoke to all political parties on the need for a political narrative emerging from Jammu and strengthening the ethos of Jammu and Kashmir and the country. “Time has come to have a Jammu narrative, a political narrative, after all it was the Dogras, it was Maharaja Gulab Singh, who carved out the state,” he said.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the BJP has always ensured development of Jammu and Kashmir. “Their joining will give a fillip to the development works that began two years ago,” Pradhan said.

A government’s decision in 2019 terminated the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh union territories.

Image source: Economic Times