STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday that the Centre will not hold talks with the “Hurriyat, Jamiat or Pakistan” and speak with the youth of Jammu and Kashmir instead. Speaking during the no-confidence debate in Lok Sabha, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken an “epoch-making decision” to bring about a change in Kashmir. “Article 370 was a mistake by the Jawaharlal Nehru government. It was abrogated by this parliament on August 5 and 6, 2019.
HM appeals for peace in Manipur, says attempts to politicise issue shameful
New Delhi: Appealing with “folded hands” for an end to the three-month-long cycle of violence in Manipur, Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday urged warring Kuki and Meitei communities to hold talks, as Lok Sabha adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of peace in the northeastern state.
Intervening in the debate on the no-confidence motion after Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders slammed the government’s handling of the Manipur situation, Shah urged them not to politicise the issue of ethnic violence in the state.
“I agree with the opposition that there is a cycle of violence in Manipur … Nobody can support such incidents. Whatever happened is shameful, but to politicise those events is even more shameful,” Shah said. “Through this House, I appeal with folded hands to both the communities that violence is not a solution for any problem, join the talks. Sit down with the Government and find a solution to the problem. Rumours only create an atmosphere of distrust,” he said.
The minister said 152 people were killed, 14,898 people arrested and 1,106 FIRs registered since violence erupted on May 3.
Lok Sabha also adopted a resolution read out by Speaker Om Birla appealing for peace in Manipur that was enthusiastically supported by the NDA members in the presence of the opposition.
In his nearly two-hour intervention, Shah ruled out a change of guard in Manipur asserting that the chief minister was cooperating with the Centre in the efforts to restore peace.
He rejected the opposition demand to impose President’s Rule in Manipur saying the need would have arisen had the chief minister been non-cooperative.
“We changed the Chief Secretary, Director General of police a day after the violence broke out. We also appointed a security advisor and made him incharge of the unified command mechanism,” he said.
On the video of the May 4 incident, in which two women were stripped and paraded naked by a mob, that appeared on July 19, saying the government was not aware of it. He also questioned the intention of leaking the video on social media ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament.
“Why did it emerge a day before the parliament session? Had the video been given to the DGP on May 4, the culprits would have been arrested on May 5. Nine people were identified, arrested, and are facing trial on the day the video came to light,” he said.
With that, two flags and two constitutions were gone from Kashmir and PM Modi ensured its complete integration into the country,” Shah said. “An NGO inspired by them (Congress) held a meeting recently and released a report stating that the Centre should hold talks with the Hurriyat, Jamiat and Pakistan. We will not speak to the Hurriyat, Jamiat or Pakistan. If we hold discussions, we will hold them with the youth of the Valley. They are our own and we will talk to them,” the home minister added. On the steps taken in Kashmir, Shah said the Centre had imposed restrictions on the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir, and removed terrorist sympathisers from jobs. He said funeral processions are no longer taken out for terrorists and they are buried where they are killed.
The home minister said that the Lakhanpur toll tax in Kashmir, where party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee had been arrested in 1953 and which was “a thorn in the hearts of crores of BJP workers”, has been done away with.
“There was no reservation for Dalits, tribals and people from the backward classes (in Kashmir). The work of getting them reservation was done by the Narendra Modi government. There were cleaning workers who had been living in Kashmir for seven generations, since the Mughal era, but were not getting domicile certificates. Hindus from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir were not getting domicile. PM Modi ensured that all of them got domicile certificates,” Shah said.
Hitting out at parties “that call themselves democratic”, Shah said three families had ruled over Kashmir – Muftis, Abdullahs and Gandhis – but did not get panchayat polls conducted. PM Modi got them held in November-December 2018, he said.
The minister claimed that between the last nine years of the UPA rule and the nine years of the Modi government, there has been a 68% decrease in terrorist incidents, 72% fall in deaths of civilian and security forces personnel combined, 82% reduction in civilian deaths and a 56% fall in the deaths of security personnel. Shah added that no one now has the courage to indulge in stone-throwing.
The home minister also spoke about the development of tourism in the state since the abrogation of Article 370, as well as the reopening of theatres.