'IN TOUCH WITH STAKEHOLDERS ON PENSION SCHEME'

Jitendra Singh dons many hats - a medical doctor, a newspaper columnist, and a politician who is in charge of several key portfolios, including PMO, in the Narendra Modi-led government. He takes questions on a range of issues - from BJP's scintillating performance in the recently concluded polls in three northeastern states to elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Excerpts from the 4th edition of Delhi Dialogue, from The Morning Standard

Jitendra Singh: I'm glad to be here, and I'm ready to respond to your questions.

SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA: You are back from Gujarat, and there was a Kashmir festival there. Your party has come to power in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya in alliances. The BJP is therefore entrenched in the northeast. When will we see your region, Jammu & Kashmir, in election mode?

Jitendra Singh: For the first part of your question on the northeast: I think it would be a case study of how PM Narendra Modi has transformed the BJP in the northeast. Indeed, a revolutionary transformation has taken place at different levels. There was a time when a government vehicle would be fired upon wherever it broke down, for example, in the Tura hills of Meghalaya. It's all over now. The largest credit for this turn-around goes to PM Modi, who has gone ahead with his personal outreach. I can say so because I was in charge of the northeast all those years. The PM must have visited the northeast not less than 55 times in the last five-six years. So that kind of outreach, coupled with the swift development of the region, has bought about the much-needed transformation. (According to the Indian Railways, the railway network in the country's northeastern states has been converted into a broad gauge. Between 2014 and 2017, a total of 972 km of track was converted into a broad gauge network. Except for Sikkim, the Indian Railways network now connects all of the North East states).