PM corners Cong on Omar’s remarks
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today cornered Congress and the grand alliance parties over National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s remarks for a separate Prime Minister for Jammu and Kashmir while BJP president Amit Shah declared that Article 370 and 35-A will be scrapped once the BJP achieves majority in the Rajya Sabha in 2020.
“Two Prime Ministers for Hindustan? Do you agree with it? Congress has to answer and all the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ partners have to answer. What are the reasons and how dare he say that”, Modi said at an election rally in Hyderabad referring to the comments made by Omar Abdullah earlier in the day in Srinagar demanding separate Prime Minister for Jammu and Kashmir.
Modi said he also wants to ask Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar whether they agreed with Omar Abdullah’s statement.
“I want to ask Bengal Didi who shouts a lot, do you agree with it? answer the people. U-turn (Chandrababu) Babu with whom Farooq Abdullah campaigned recently in Andhra Pradesh. Do you think Naidu should get votes? NCP’s Sharad Pawar and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, whose son is Karnataka CM, should also answer. Would you like to go with them (Mahagathbandhan) or break away from them?” Modi asked. Meanwhile, BJP president Amit Shah in an interview to a news channel said the BJP was firm on its stand on Article 370 and 35-A right from the days of Jan Sangh and there has been no change in it.
“The Articles couldn’t be abrogated as the BJP didn’t have majority in the Rajya Sabha. It will happen in 2020 when we get majority in the Rajya Sabha,” Shah, who is scheduled to address two election rallies at Sunderbani and Udhampur on April 3, said.
“Since 1990 when militancy broke out in Kashmir, maximum number of militants have been neutralized during five years of Narendra Modi-led Government and the drive will continue,” he said.
Shah said security of the country is top most priority of the Government. He also referred to ban imposed on Jamaat-e-Islami and JKLF and re-opening of cases against the separatists.
BJP president said Modi Government worked with three-pronged strategy in Jammu and Kashmir-dealing terrorists with gun, keeping check on separatism and pushing Pakistan to isolation at the world forums for its support to militants.
PTI adds: In a two-pronged attack on the Congress over the ‘Hindu terror’ tag, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah today accused the opposition party of trying to defame the community, saying it is a “sin” to link peace-loving Hindus to terrorism.
The Hindus have now woken up and the country has decided to “punish” the opposition party, Modi said launching the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Maharashtra at a public rally in Wardha.
The Congress is scared to field its leaders from constituencies where majority dominates in terms of voter-base, Modi said without naming anyone, but the remark came a day after its president Rahul Gandhi decided to enter the Lok Sabha electoral fray from a second seat in Wayanad in Kerala which has a sizeable Muslim population.
“The Congress tried to stain crores of the country’s people using the term ‘Hindu terror’. Tell me; weren’t you deeply hurt when you heard the term ‘Hindu terror’? Is there a single incident in the history of thousands of years of Hindus engaging in terrorism?” Modi thundered at the rally.
He also asked the people whether they would forgive the Congress for committing the “sin” of linking peace-loving Hindus to terrorism.
The Prime Minister said the Congress was very well aware now that the country has decided to ‘punish’ it.
“Some leaders are shying away from contesting polls (in the first place). Those, whom it (Congress) called terrorists, have woken up,” Modi said.
“They linked peace-loving Hindus to terrorism… they are scared now to contest election from constituency where majority population dominates…they are forced to go where majority (Hindus) are in minority,” he added.
Shah took on the Congress on the ‘Hindu terror’ tag while addressing a rally in Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district in Odisha which falls under the Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency that goes to polls in the first phase on April 11.
“Rahul (Gandhi) Baba’s party attempted to link the Hindu community with terrorism. It was a bid to defame Hindus across the world,” Shah said.
Hitting out at the Congress, the BJP chief also said all the accused, including Swami Aseemanand, were recently acquitted in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case.
“Unfortunately, the then Congress Government compromised with national security by allowing the real culprits in the case to go scot-free. These people have no concern for national security,” Shah said.
Meanwhile, taking on former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Union Minister Arun Jaitley today said his demand for revival of the post of Prime Minister and President in J&K is intended to create a “separatist psyche” and asserted that new India would never allow any Government to commit such blunders.
The two mainstream parties — NC and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Mehbooba Mufti — in Kashmir are increasingly losing their identities, Jaitley said in a blog.
“The separatists and the terrorists want a part of the State to segregate from India. India will never accept this.
“It has already given a loud and clear message both to the separatists/ terrorists and Pakistan that Azadi is not a distant possibility. It is an impossibility,” he said.
The senior BJP leader and Union Finance Minister also said statements of the two parties that the constitutional link between the State and the country is based on solemn assurance of Article 35A were unacceptable.
Some have even gone further and argued that two constitutional provisions constitute the revocable link which has to be maintained, he noted.
Jaitley said the argument is completely unacceptable as Article 35A was not there in 1947 when the Instrument of Accession was signed in the month of October.
“In 1950, when the Constitution came into force, it was not there. It was only surreptitiously inserted in 1954. How can it be the essential Constitutional link?,” the minister said.
Jaitley said the matter is being heard by the Supreme Court.
“Why intimidate the Court which is hearing the matter. History is never reversed by Court judgements. The argument of revocability is as absurd as a suggestion that if the Indian Independence Act was revoked by the British Parliament, we will lose our Independence,” he said in the blog titled ‘Ek Desh Mein Do Vidhan, Do Pradhan’ (In one country, two constitutions, two heads).
Jaitley said Abdullah’s demand of reviving the post of Wazir-e-Aazam and Sadr-e-Riyasat is only intended to create a “separatist psyche”.
“Little do these demandeurs realise how much they are hurting the country as also their own people. The new India will never allow any Government to commit such blunders,” the minister said.
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