Srinagar's Dal lake no longer dull: Vice President Dhankhar

New Delhi, Sep 26: Amid Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said the Dal lake in Srinagar was "dull" when he went there in 1990 but is now teeming with tourists, while pointing out that Article 370 is no longer applicable to the region.

Addressing the 83rd foundation day celebrations of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dhankhar recalled his visit to Srinagar in 1990 as a Union minister, when he stayed in a hotel near the Dal lake.

"Everything was dull. D-U-L-L. Not even 20 souls could be seen on the road. A state of dejection and hopelessness," the vice president said.

He said the Rajya Sabha, which he presides over as its chairman, was informed last year that two crore tourists had visited Jammu and Kashmir.

Dhankhar pointed out that Article 370, which was envisioned as a temporary provision of the Constitution, is no longer there.

"Article 370, the only article labelled as temporary and which was taken by some people, including those who had taken an oath under the Constitution, to be permanent, is no longer there," he said.

"The state of the nation today is beyond my dreams. I never imagined. I did not conceive of the Bharat that it is today," Dhankhar said, comparing the present-day situation with that of the 1990s.

The vice president said the 1990s were a period when India had to pledge its gold with Swiss banks to sustain its financial credibility as forex reserves had plunged to USD 1 billion and financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, issued directives to India in the garb of advisories.

"Now, the IMF says India is the most-favoured global destination for investments and opportunity, and the World Bank calls India a role model on digitisation," he said.

Dhankhar said the 1990s were also an era of middlemen on the corridors of power, corruption was rampant and only a person with pedigree could get access to opportunities.

"Now, the power corridors are fully sanitised. The middleman has disappeared.... All transactions take place digitally, without a human interface. That is the change I never imagined," he said.

The vice president expressed satisfaction that recognition for the scientific community has increased significantly.

"Soothing to note that in the last few years, recognition for the scientific community has gone up. It has gone up in several ways, including the government being very serious about it, and the prime minister's heart and soul are deeply in the scientific community," he said.