Shah on 2-day Srinagar visit, interacts with J&K BJP leaders, likely to chair security review meeting
STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday interacted with several delegations, including BJP leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, on the first day of his two-day visit here.
Shah, who arrived this evening, is also likely to hold a security review meeting on Friday morning.
A Pahari delegation led by Mohammad Younis Khan met the minister and thanked him for granting Scheduled Tribe status to the community.
“We have come to meet the home minister to express our gratitude because after 50 years of struggle, we have finally obtained Scheduled Tribe status. They have fulfilled our demand, unlike other parties who only seek votes but never fulfill their promises. We will remain faithful to them as they fulfilled our demand,” Khan told reporters before the delegation’s meeting with Shah.
A delegation of local Sikhs also met Shah and it said it raised the demand of inclusion of the Punjabi language in syllabus of universities and reservation of seats in the assembly for the community as granted to Kashmiri Pandits.
Among the BJP leaders who met Shah were Darakhshan Andrabi, Sunil Sharma, Tarun Chugh and R S Pathania.
Though the schedule finalised for Shah’s visit is limited to meeting only BJP leaders, sources said leaders of “local allies” of the party may also meet him.
Earlier in the day, Sharma, the general secretary of the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit, said the home minister’s visit to Kashmir is not political.
“The Union minister is coming to Kashmir today, but the visit is not political. The (general) elections are underway. The voter turnout (for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat) on May 13 is a huge success of the policies of the central government including the abrogation of Article 370.
“I think the home minister is coming here to review the measures from the security point of view to increase the turnout and create an atmosphere of peace. There is no political activity, but the BJP workers will meet him and discuss the party’s organisational matters,” Sharma said.
Asked whether a Jamaat-e-Islami delegation will meet Shah, he said no such delegation is scheduled to meet the home minister.
Any non-political or senior people can meet Shah but no political delegation is meeting him, Sharma said.
Shah is likely to be briefed about the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir by the top security brass as the Lok Sabha elections will be followed by the annual Amarnath Yatra, which is scheduled to start on June 29 and conclude on August 19.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir might witness assembly elections after the yatra as the Supreme Court has given a deadline of September 30 to the Centre for holding these polls.
Shah also asserted that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belongs to India and the country will take it back “at any cost”.
Addressing back-to-back election rallies in Bihar’s Sitamarhi and Madhubani Lok Sabha constituencies in favour of NDA nominees, the former BJP president also claimed that the Congress-led INDIA bloc was planning to rotate the PM’s chair among its constituents if voted to power.
“When Article 370 was scrapped, Rahul Gandhi had said that it would lead to bloodshed. Five years have elapsed and not a pebble has been hurled. But Congress ally Farooq Abdullah tries scaremongering by saying that we cannot take back PoK as Pakistan has atom bombs,” Shah said at Sitamarhi.
Sitamarhi district, bordering Nepal, is considered the birthplace of Goddess Sita.
“I wish to declare from the birthplace of Goddess Sita that Bharat and its 140 crore people fear no one. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is ours and it will remain so. We will take it back,” he said.
The NDA government will also ensure full security along the India-Nepal border in its third term, he added.
Hitting out at the INDIA alliance for not announcing its PM candidate, Shah said the country needs a strong prime minister and not “one in every year”.
“They (INDIA bloc) don’t have a face for the PM’s post. The country has decided to give Modi ji a third term. But, can you tell me who will be the INDIA bloc’s PM candidate? They are not coming to power at any cost… but in case… will Mamata Banerjee become the PM or MK Stalin or Lalu Prasad? They have decided to rotate the PM’s chair among themselves if they form the government,” he said.
The BJP leader wondered if such a prime minister could be able to protect the country from a pandemic or a terrorist attack.
About Bihar, the union home minister said the state needs “vikas raj and not jungle raj”.
He said RJD has joined hands with the Congress which opposed the Mandal Commission’s recommendations and delayed the report of the Kakasaheb Kalelkar Commission of 1955 which was set up to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes.
“The Congress ruled the country for 60 years but did not think about the welfare of 60 crore OBCs. Congress and RJD never thought of conferring Bharat Ratna on former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur… it was done by Modi Ji only,” he said.
Accusing INDIA bloc leaders of being involved in “Rs 12 lakh crore corruption”, Shah said the NDA government wants to end this menace.
Congress and RJD leaders did not attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya despite being invited because of their vote bank politics, he claimed.
Shah said that the NDA government has decided to develop ‘Punaura Dham Mandir’, a temple in Sitamarhi district considered to be the birthplace of Goddess Sita, as an international pilgrimage site.
“The NDA government is against cow slaughter… we will not allow it at any cost. Those found involved in cow slaughter will be hanged upside down during the third term of Modi Ji,” he said.
Shah the Centre’s decision to ban the Popular Front of India is correct as, he claimed, the PFI wanted to make the country an Islamic one.
