Srinagar, May 16 :
The BJP has downplayed the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s two-day visit to the Kashmir valley, starting Thursday, as “apolitical”, even though it comes in the midst of the ongoing Lok Sabha election and is triggering jitters among the regional parties, the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The unscheduled visit also comes against the backdrop of recent peace overtures by the banned socio-religious group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).
“The Home Minister’s visit is apolitical. He will chair a meeting to review the arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra and meet local delegations,” BJP leader and Kashmir in-charge Sunil Sharma said, adding that people from different communities, such as the Gujjars, Bakerwals, and Dal dwellers, could meet him. Mr. Sharma reiterated that Assembly elections in J&K “will be held soon, and Statehood will also be restored”.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday asserted that Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) belongs to India and the country will take it back “at any cost”.
Addressing an election rally in Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, the former BJP president slammed the Congress-led opposition for “raising fear about Pakistan’s atomic 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’s ally Farooq Abdullah tries scaremongering by saying that we cannot take back PoJK as Pakistan has atom bombs,” Shah asserted.
“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.
Shah said the Modi government will also ensure full security along the India-Nepal border in its third term.
Attacking the INDIA bloc, he said, “Lalu Prasad-led RJD has joined hands with the Congress that opposed the Mandal Commission’s recommendations but PM Modi has given respect to lakhs of people from the backward classes. Lalu joined hands with the Congress only to make his son, Tejashwi Yadav, the chief minister of Bihar… but the state needs ‘vikasraj, not ‘jungelraj’.”
“Congress ruled the country for 60 years but did not think about 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 the Modi government,” he said.
Amit Shah’s ‘apolitical’
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.
“After Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, we will construct a massive temple of Sita Mata in Sitamarhi,” he said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet has approved Rs 72.47 crore for the development of the temple.
Senior JD (U) leader and Bihar Legislative Council chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur is the NDA nominee from Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat.
Shah will address another election rally in Madhubani Lok Sabha seat later in the day.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah may be headed to Srinagar Thursday for a two-day visit to Kashmir, during which he will meet the BJP leaders and delegations from the Pahari community, trade bodies and civil society.
Shah is also likely to chair a security review meeting during his overnight stay in the Valley.
Voting has been wrapped up in three of Jammu and Kashmir(J&K)’s five Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has not fielded its candidates for the three seats in Kashmir but has unofficially extended support to some of the new political parties formed there after the abrogation of Article 370.
Two Valley constituencies — Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri — are going to polls in the fifth phase and sixth phase on May 20 and May 25, respectively. Ladakh’s lone Lok Sabha seat will vote on May 20.
National Conference leader and ex-chief minister Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone are in the fray in Baramulla. PDP chief and ex-CM Mehbooba Mufti is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.
Earlier on Thursday, Shah will address rallies in Bihar’s Sitamarhi and Madhubani seats, which are going to polls on May 20.
Shah’s Kashmir visit comes a day after he made comments on the ongoing protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at a BJP rally in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. While alleging that the Congress leaders were not in support of taking over PoK, he said, “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a part of India and we will take it back.”
Kejriwal in Punjab
After his release from Tihar Jail on May 10 on an interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has led a renewed campaign for the Lok Sabha polls with a fresh strategy for the party. Kejriwal had been in the prison for nearly 50 days in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Following poll rallies and roadshows in Delhi and Haryana, Kejriwal is set to visit Punjab Thursday, for the first time since his release from Tihar Jail. The CM will first visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar before leading a roadshow in the city to campaign for the party’s Amritsar Lok Sabha candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal. Kejriwal is expected to address several rallies in the state along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann.
With Punjab set to vote in the seventh and last phase on June 1, the state’s ruling AAP faces challenges from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), BJP — and the Congress with which it was unable to arrive at a seat-sharing arrangement despite being members of the Opposition INDIA bloc and allies in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat in the current Lok Sabha elections. With the SAD and the BJP also failing to revive their 25-year-long past association with an alliance for the ongoing polls, the state is set up for a four-cornered contest.
