Narendra Modi’s Lalkaar Rally in Jammu stood true to its name as a lalkaar echoed from across Jammu all the way to the Srinagar Valley on the need for a substantive debate on Article 370 and the economic development of Jammu Kashmir more than six decades after Independence.

Narendra Modi’s speech in Jammu made a marked departure from its trademark barbs at political rivals. It didn’t have any of the political sarcasm on the Congress’ leadership. On the contrary this was a speech focused entirely on substantive issues. The difference though was the passion, punch and sharpness Modi packed into each and every line on the issues over which he called for an open debate.

Calling to question the continued relevance and cost-benefits of Article 370 Narendra Modi for the first time framed the contentious debate over Article 370 within the economic and social justice realm. Asking hard questions on how Women, Dalits, Shias, Gujjars, OBCs and many others face discrimination Mr. Modi sought to know why there were two sets of rules – one set for J&K and another for the rest of India. Mr. Modi took the debate further into the realm of Economic Opportunities for the Youth of Kashmir by asking why the Tourism Industry, Film Making Industry, Herbal Healthcare Industries have languished even as J&K has not seen an IIT or an IIM being setup.

With this speech in Jammu Narendra Modi has clearly shaken up the unwritten political consensus in both J&K and rest of India on accepting Article 370 as fait accompli. By forcing a sharp debate on it and by doing so from the twin reference points of Social Justice and Economic Opportunity, Narendra Modi has effected an important course correction in the BJP’s articulation of its stance against Article 370.

With this articulation, the debate on Article 370 is now neither trapped within narrow communal arguments nor within hyperbolic jingoism. The debate on Article 370 is now a debate on the Liberal Nationalism that Syama Prasad Mookerjee stood for and died for in Kashmir.