New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday blamed country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the festering Kashmir problem, while claiming that various developmental measures initiated by the NDA government have kept Jamhuriyat alive in the state.
Replying to a discussion in Lok Sabha on the resolution to extend President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for another six months from July 3 onwards, amid Opposition from the Congress and other parties, as well as on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, (which were later passed by voice vote), Mr Shah said that the NDA government has zero tolerance towards terrorism.
It was incidentally Mr Shah’s maiden speech in Lok Sabha.
He accused the Congress for growth of terrorism in Kashmir and held it responsible for the state’s current situation, alleging that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s decisions were behind India losing one-third of its territory to Pakistan.
“Why was Jamaat-e-Islami not banned earlier? Who did you want to please?” Mr Shah asked while stating that the J&K situation was not of NDA’s making.
Mr Shah alleged that the policies of previous Congress governments widened the wedge between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the country.
“Jamhuriyat in Kashmir will never be allowed to be diluted and it is due to our government’s efforts and policies that people of the state feel that things are finally improving for good and the hegemony of three families has been broken,” Mr Shah said amid thumping of benches by BJP members.
The fact that today there is relative peace in J&K is something which those who have played divisive politics in the region, are not able to stomach.
“We are not part of tukde-tukde gang. Those who have anti-India feelings in their hearts are afraid of the changing situation in J&K. Their fear should increase,” the home minister said.
The home minister also said the government withdrew security of 919 people in the state as there was no security threat for them. “Earlier people who used to speak against the country were given security cover,” he said, adding whereas those who spoke for India were actually killed in the state.
In his hour-long speech, Mr Shah said that “jan kalyan” was the government’s top priority and that is why people there have now access to basic amenities and even Lok Sabha elections were held peacefully, without shedding a single drop of blood.
Claiming that the Congress conducted “fake polls” in J&K in the 1950s and the 60s, Mr Shah said that it was then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who conducted the first free and fair elections in the state in 1996.
Now, he said, after panchayat elections were held successfully in the state, people have found their rightful voice and they feel part of this country.
Earlier participating in the discussion, several Opposition members sought to know why the government could not conduct Assembly polls in the state along with the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.
They also sought to know why was there a need to extend President’s Rule in the state when the government was claiming that the situation there has now improved.
To this, Mr Shah said that Assembly elections in the state will be held in a free, fair and democratic manner once the Election Commission announces the schedule. He hinted that elections could be held by the end of the year.
He further added that since Lok Sabha elections were being conducted in the entire country which needed high-level security, it would have been difficult to provide security to all the Assembly segments of J&K at the same time. Therefore, it was decided that first Lok Sabha polls should be conducted there, since it only consists of six seats.
On the President’s Rule issue, attacking the Congress, he alleged that the Congress made the maximum use of Article 356 of the Constitution to dismiss elected governments in various states in the past.
Mr Shah said that Article 370 of the Constitution which extends special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is “temporary in nature”.
Participating in the debate earlier, Congress MP Manish Tewari said he and his party were not opposed to the Centre’s fight against terrorism but added, “Fight against terrorism cannot be won when people are not with you.”
It is “not in the interest of people in the state and the country” that governor’s rule should continue in the state, he said, adding the Centre should not take such steps which alienate the people of the state.
Mr Tewari said the biggest mistake of the Modi government was that the sense of alienation has increased among people in the state. “The government needs to walk extra miles to integrate them into the national stream.”
Taking on the BJP, Mr Tewari said if the party continues to look at Jammu and Kashmir with “its ideological blinkers”, the problem of the state cannot be resolved.
RSP MP N.K. Premchandran said that the government’s announcement on reservation for people in the state living near the international border, just 10 days before the notification of Lok Sabha polls, looked like a political move.
Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhury said that looking at the rising death toll of security personnel as well common people in J&K in the past six months, how can the government claim that its policy has been more successful than that of the Congress.
During Mr Shah’s speech, when Congress members and the lone AAP MP Bhagwant Mann asked him to stick to the resolution and not attack former Prime Mminister Mr Nehru, Speaker Om Birla while admonishing the MPs asked Mr Mann specifically to avoid passing comments from his seat.
“Seat par baithe baithe gyan mat dijiye,” he told the AAP MP.
