Shah to Rahul: Act against Azad, Soz for J&K remarks

Srinagar: On his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the collapse of the PDP-BJP government earlier this month, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said his party had pulled out of the alliance as the Mehbooba Mufti-led government had failed to ensure equal and balanced development of Jammu and Ladakh regions as that of the Kashmir Valley. The saffron party chief also lashed out at Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz for being on the “same frequency” as Pakistan-based terrorists and dared Rahul Gandhi to take action against his party colleagues.

Mr Azad had said that the security forces in the Valley were killing more civilians than terrorists while Mr Soz claimed that Kashmiris want independence.

In an apparent bid to consolidate the BJP’s vote bank in Jammu and Ladakh ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mr Shah said, “The BJP is a party of patriots. Governments hold no meaning to it but development and security of the country do. The PDP-led government failed to ensure equal and balanced development of all the three regions of the state. Jammu and Ladakh were discriminated against so we decided to pull out of the government.” The BJP chief was addressing a rally in Jammu held to mark the “martyrdom anniversary” of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Local watchers say that the BJP president invoked the alleged inequity with Jammu and Ladakh in an attempt to reach out its vote bank in the two regions of the state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Targeting the Congress, Mr Shah said Rahul Gandhi should tell both Mr Azad and Mr Soz, both former Union ministers, to apologise to the people of the country. “I want to reassure people of J&K that nobody can disintegrate it from India,” he said.

On Thursday, former J&K chief minister Azad said the security forces were killing more civilians than terrorists in the Valley and Mr Soz in his forthcoming book — Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle — reportedly endorses former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s assessment that Kashmiris will opt for independence if given a chance.

Mr Shah said soon after Mr Azad’s remarks terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taýyaba came out with a statement supporting him.

“What kind of frequency matching is this between LeT and the Congress?” he asked, questioning Mr Gandhi to explain how Mr Azad and the LeT shared the same views.

Addressing his first political rally in Jammu after the BJP pulled out of the PDP-BJP coalition government and Governor’s Rule was imposed in the state, Mr Shah said that the BJP pulled Justifying the BJP decision to end the alliance in J&K, Mr Shah said that “Agenda of the Alliance” signed with the PDP in 2015 was for equal development of Jammu, Ladakh and the Valley, restoration of peace and putting an end to militant activities and ensuring complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country.

“This dream was not realised. Neither peace was restored nor development of Ladakh and Jammu could take place even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a package of Rs 80,000 crores and visited the state more than a dozen times to ensure equal attention is paid to all the three regions,” he said.

Mr Shah said that the security situation in the state deteriorated to the extent that an Army jawan was kidnapped while going home for Id and murdered by militants. “Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of a newspaper, too was murdered. India is a democratic country where an editor has the freedom to write. Attacks on the Army and other security forces saw an increase. Stones reached the hands of children,” he said.

Out of the six Lok Sabha in the state, the BJP had won three in Jammu and Ladakh. The other three seats in the Valley were won by the PDP in 2014. In the Assembly elections held the same year, almost all the 25 seats won by the BJP were in the Jammu region.

Mr Shah said when a political party loses power, the people associated with it grieve over it. “But when our government falls we yell ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ because it is the interest of the people and the country which are paramount to us, not power,” he said.

He alleged that the two families from the National Conference and the PDP ruled J&K for three generations but never did anything for people of Jammu and Ladakh and with Congress, in power at the Centre, also failed to do what the Modi government did for the state in just four years. “The two families with Congress indulged in all kind of corrupt practices,” he alleged.

The BJP president during his visit reviewed the party’s preparations and strategy for the Lok Sabha elections due next year. He chaired meetings of the party’s election committee and reviewed organisational functioning.