Ruling out any rethink on decisions on CAA and Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that his government remains and will remain firm on the steps despite pressure from all sides.
”Be it the scrapping of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir or the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the country waited for decisions on these for years,” he told a public meeting in Varanasi during a day-long visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.
”These decisions were necessary in the interest of the nation. Duniya bhar ke saarey dabao ke bawjood, inn faislon par hum qayam hain aur qayam rahengey (Despite pressure from all sides, we remain firm on these decisions and will continue to remain firm,” Modi said.
Provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special powers to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, were abrogated by the government in August last year.
The Prime Minister’s tough talk assumed significance in view of protests against the CAA in various parts of the country. Citing certain key decisions of his government, Modi referred to the trust set up for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and asserted that it would work ”rapidly”.
”A trust has been formed for the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. This trust will work rapidly,” he said.
He said that after setting up of the trust, the work on the construction of ‘Ram dham’ will start with fast speed and added that his government has also decided to transfer 67 acres of land to the trust.
The government had recently set up the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra on the Supreme Court’s directive to the Union government to form a trust that can look into the construction and management of the temple. Such a strong leadership for the country is the need of the hour, especially when vested interests are trying to play spoilsport.